And Guest
by StrangeLittleSwirl
Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend’s wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family’s guard is the perfect choice to accompany her.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** And Guest  
**Author:**  
**Characters:** Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
**Pairing:** Cain/DG  
**Rating:** G, for now  
**Summary:** When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.

**Warning:** Not really  
**Disclaimer:** It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaptation. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
**Word Count:** 2,207

* * *

"She's one of my best friends, Mother, from the other side, and I have to go. It's all part of tradition over there. The wearing of a hideous bride's dress, the stressful rehearsal where they nearly call it off, the bathroom quick clean up of tears after the bride has the panic attack and starts to rethink everything, and of course, the reception afterwards. Alright, so it's not as pretty and grand as we do things here at home but I have to go."

The eclipse had been reversed two months ago, and OZ was still trying to find its feet in the aftermath. The royal family had settled into such a routine one would think they had always been this close. A walk through the gardens was a daily occurrence for the queen and DG. Today, Cain had arrived just as they were about to set off, and both women insisted he join them.

Of course the Queen and her husband had appointed him the head of the Royal Tin Man Section, and he was, of course, good at what he did. Most of the unit was made up of former Resistance Fighters who had been recommended by Jeb. They were eager to prove their worth to the Queen, who DG and Azkadellia insisted should rule for now, as neither were prepared to do so.

Glitch-for never again would he be Ambrose, even after he had his brain given back to him, since some things just _shouldn't_ be removed in the first place-had devised a way for DG to get something called the 'intern net', though no one had seen it but saw her magic book with its keypad and screen. Raw, however, could always tell when she was using it, something about the air, he would say. DG tried her best to not use it when he was around, since it bothered him so much.

Which brought them up to now. DG had received the thick, expensive envelope from her Robo-Dad, as she referred to him, with a questioning look. Her eyes had widened in surprise when she saw who it was from: Sarah Dawes.

Pretty Sarah with her Mid-Western blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes had been dating Mike Henderson since the beginning of high school. Everyone knew that Mike was going to propose, and very soon; he had been waiting until he was financially secure enough to provide for Sarah, and of course, buy the ring. God fearing people, DG knew it would be a short engagement. She just hadn't expected this short.

And she was perfectly happy with it, even more delighted when she saw that Sarah-who had heard about how DG had discovered her biological parents after the twister-had asked her to be a bridesmaid. DG just didn't like that imposing question on the card to return, the one asking if she was going to bring a guest or not.

She would worry about that later. For now, she had to be sure that her mother would let her go. Who knew if there was a royal blah blah blah that day or ceremonious ceremony of ceremony-like proportions she could not miss. Az could step in for her, right? She and her sister had started down that long road to recovery together, and had been all but inseparable for the first few days. But they _had_ grown up, and they were separate people, so when Azkedellia would go to one of her many doctors' appointments, DG would take those hours and spend them alone, or with her parents. In general, she just needed a bit of personal space.

So here she stood, envelope, in all it's pearly light blueness, in her pocket, as she waited for an answer.

Her mother was watching her, and DG hadn't broken a bone in a very long time but the x-ray machine felt something like this. She blinked and waited, chin still up, and watching her mother.

"I suppose, if it means that much to you. I am glad to see that you value all of your friendships equally."

"Oh thanks, Mom!" she exclaimed, hugging her mother. DG wasn't sure if she should call her 'Mom' or hug her in public, but really it was Cain standing in the shadows-how he had managed to find a shadow in the sunny garden, she wasn't sure- and he was one of her greatest friends.

"But I _cannot_ have you going alone. Dorothy forbid I allow you to be that vulnerable at this wedding."

DG saw Cain's shoulders drop, relief washing over his face. He was always nervous these days, anxious about something...

And then her mother turned to face him. "And our dear Wyatt Cain is just the man to accompany you."

Both looked at her, alarmed. There was a rush to refute this, and DG really didn't have anything to say, but Cain, being a gentleman, allowed her to go first.

"I am sure Cain has a lot of official-type stuff to do about here, and I don't think he'd really enjoy it."

"I probably wouldn't. I assume their ceremonies are very different than the ones here."

The Queen's eyes sparkled. "Excellent! It will be a learning experience for both of you, then. I cannot wait to hear of your excursion's outcome when you return. DG, make sure that the tailors make him appropriate clothing to accompany you." And with that, she breezed past them.

Guilt washed over her.

"Oh Cain, I am so sorry," she started. He gave her a look she couldn't discern. "I am, really!"

The Tin Man started towards the castle, slow enough for the princess to catch up. "So what should I expect?" he asked, reluctantly.

DG hurried to join him. "Well, the ceremony is just a lot of sitting for you. And I will be standing up front, and my feet will be killing me the entire time. Oh, I'll probably look stupid, since all bridesmaids dresses are ridiculously ugly. At the reception there's food and dancing-"

"Dancing? Maybe you should take Glitch."

DG pictured it for the briefest of instance before snorting. An outburst at the wrong point in church, one of his strange dances afterwards, and of course…"People don't have zippers in their heads in Kansas, Cain. And a hat isn't going to cover the misfiring synapses."

"So what day is this?"

DG bit her lip, trying to figure out the way to say this best. Her stomach squirmed with the knowledge that she was being a nuisance. "It's a few days, actually."

"What?"

* * *

"What?" DG cried, from behind the dressing room curtain. She had one leg out of a dress, hopping about on it, while trying to get her other foot into it, her skin stuck to the tulle. One of the other bridesmaids, Carly, laughed.

"Well, what happened? One day I'm seeing you in our Chemistry class at the college, and the next, I hear you've struck out to find your biological parents. We all missed you!"

"Gee guys, I missed you too-ow!" she had fallen over, but then that really wasn't what she was worried about, because Cain had burst in to the dressing room area. When she poked a head out, his panicked eyes were searching for the princess. He started to open his mouth as he put away his gun, but DG put a finger up to her lips and gestured for him to leave. She could see the muscles in his jaw working before he exited, and prepared for the heated discussion afterwards.

By shear luck alone, none of the girls were out of their changing rooms in that moment, and Cain moved so silently no one had heard him enter. DG hopped her way back over to a chair in the corner to get the dress on.

When she finally exited her little area, DG stepped next to Carly, whose curves weren't being restrained all that properly by the dress. She, on the other hand, realized that 'tube socking it' may be a phrase in her future if she wanted to fill out the dress.

"It matches your eyes, DG," Carly said quietly as Mona, the other bridesmaid came over. Mona's mouth was a firm, thin line as she tugged at the dress. Mona was going to get married in half a year to a man she had never met. Her parents may have emigrated from India, but their traditions remained. Mona and her three friends had spent many high school nights trying to figure out a way to get her out of it.

"So, dates everyone?" asked Carly. Carly was going with-scandalously-a teacher of their's from high school. Mona would be accompanied by her brother. Who was eleven.

"Mine is quite the looker," Mona said, rolling her eyes. She brushed a handful of bobbed hair behind her ear. Another sign of rebellion on her part. The Pattels had been heartbroken to see their daughter's hair cut off like that.

DG fiddled with a randomly placed rosette, then rubbed her hand after it was swatted away by the seamstress that had swooped down upon her. That sort of thing would never happen again, so she sort of enjoyed it.

The other two girls leaned forward as much as they could in their satin confections. "Deej?" they drawled.

"Um, yeah, I have a date," their friend responded, quickly. This of course meant that eight sets of eyes (there was a three way mirror) were widened and watching.

"Do we know him?"

"Nope."

Luckily, the seamstress patted her leg at the point and told her she was finished. DG waved goodbye to her friends as she left, relieved it was over. Her stomach, churned, however, at the thought of rehearsal, and the reception, and introducing Cain-Wyatt, she reminded herself, as what? Her date? Her boyfriend? Her royally appointed bodyguard?

"Scared me back there, Princess," he said as they left. Her father-the robot one-was waiting in the pick up truck in the parking lot. DG still wasn't sure how she was going to approach the subject of the motorcycle with Cain.

"I just…had a problem with gravity for a second there. No big problem."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just klutzy sometimes. We all have our weaknesses: Superman has kryptonite, for me, occasionally, it's gravity."

He helped her into the truck and its back seat before hoisting himself up with a grace she envied. "I'll pretend I understood your analogy."

She sighed.

* * *

RoboMom dropped a crinkling bag into DG's lap as she wrapped the small box on her bed. Below thin plastic was her bridesmaid dress.

"Picked it up on the way home. They said they just had to hem the bottom."

While the dress had been ordered a size larger than it needed to be on purpose, to allow for excess fabric for tucking, they hadn't needed to make any alterations. She had always been skinny, and she still was certainly slim, but some of the hardness had been softened by two months of royal chefs delivering delicious food to the princess.

"Mr. Cain is out trying to help your dad, and not having too much luck, sweetheart. If it's alright…" This was new for everyone in this house, since now DG was well, royalty, and did royalty help their father with their turbines? DG did.

DG pushed off of her bed with a crooked grin. "I'll go see what I can do for Popsicle."

She made her way through the grain field on the same, well-worn path she had always taken as long as she could remember. Now, she realized that it was the same steps that she took in the maze at Fin-Aqua. Strange.

Cain had taken off his trench coat; he had insisted on bringing it along, but compromised and wouldn't wear it to the wedding. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and the two men were speaking in animated tones. There was a lightness to this Cain, in the amber sunset and approaching stillness of Kansas night, that she wanted to see more of.

"So how bad is it?" she asked. And Cain and her father were off the ground and facing her, only stopping from bowing when her face took on an exasperated expression. "Come on, if Wyatt Cain and my own Dad treat me that way I'm going to develop a complex. What's going on?"

"I have never seen a more destroyed turbine in my life. These parts," Cain held up a chunk of metal for her inspection, up to just below his shoulders, "simply do not fit together."

DG smirked, stepping closer and taking it out of his hand. "Well, that's because I haven't touched it yet."

Fifteen minutes later all three were covered in dirt and proudly admiring the machinery, now perfectly functional. Her RoboDad had an arm around her. "Good job, sweetheart," he said, happily. "You always did have a way of fixing things that were metal."

Cain suddenly cleared his throat, and when DG looked over her father's arm, the guard was walking back towards the house, hands in his pockets and head downward. She frowned.

"He's a strange man," said her father, quietly. "But a good one."

DG could only agree, silently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title**: And Guest  
**Author:****littleswirl**  
**Characters:** Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
**Pairing:** Cain/DG  
**Rating**: T, for minor curse words  
**Summary**: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
**Warning:** I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.

**Disclaimer:** It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
**Word Count:** 1,272

* * *

"Oh no they did _not_!" 

On the way to the bathroom, DG had literally tripped over Cain. She caught herself on the wooden door frame. He opened one eye and lifted his hat slightly. DG was fuming.

"Who didn't do what, Princess?" he asked. It was more of a croak, actually. The man had not slept, there was a dusting of hair along his jaw line and, quiet frankly, he did not look well. At all. Even with the gun lazily placed on his lap. DG pulled him out of the rocking chair.

"Cain, I am so sorry. I should have-my parents should have, Christ where the _hell_ are they?"

"It's Sunday, Highness." Of course. How could she forget? She had religious robots for parents. DG descended into the kitchen throwing on a pot of coffee for the tall man following her down the stairs.

"And for the last time, it's DG!" she exclaimed, turning and quickly discovering that she was facing a broad chest. There was a pearly button directly at her eye level, and she could just make out a bit of chest hair behind it. For some reason, this thought bothered her more than their close proximity.

He reached past her for the mug of coffee. "They offered me the guest room…_DG_. However, I found that it would be pretty difficult to explain to the Queen how I had let something happen to you simply because your…"

"RoboMom," she said with a sigh.

"RoboMom," he said, mouth moving over the word strangely, "has such a comfortable quilt in the guest room. They were as perfectly hospitable as they had been programmed to be, but I'm responsible for your safety."

With an exasperated sigh she pushed past him. "I am going to shower. Are you going to have to stand there and hold the shampoo or do you think that the bathroom isn't fraught with peril that much?"

A soft chuckle followed her up the stairs.

The shower was refreshing in the way that came from knowing the plumbing that was supplying it. After almost sixteen years in the house, DG knew just the right degree that she should turn the knobs and how long to wait to get in. It was her old shampoo, and in using it now, she realized how many chemicals were in it. The O.Z. didn't use as many chemicals in their cosmetics and bathing supplies, leaving it to natural ingredients to make things smell nice and one's hair behave. DG had been most happy to find out that her frizzy hair behaved very well when she used a shampoo that Az had given her.

Bright pink and content, in a silly way, to see that she had fogged up the mirror, stepped onto the dusty rose shag mat and wiggled her toes. After wrapping a towel around herself, hair still dripping, she opened the door.

Two things happened. A rush of cold air hit her and then Wyatt Cain was brushing past her, a hair's breadth away.

"The hair in the bottom of the shower tried to attack me," she said, tonelessly. "But then my Venus razor shredded it into submission." He did not seem to appreciate her dry humor. Cain, apparently, could dish it but not take it.

"Just stay out of trouble for the next five minutes, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," she muttered, feeling sort of less bold as a fat drop of water hit the floor near her feet after it made its way down her face and off her chin.

"Oh, and DG."

DG did not have to turn around to see the smug expression on his face. She turned and saw him leaning out of the door. "I forgot to say how much I liked the pajamas this morning."

And then the door was shut, and DG was standing in the hallway, dripping and in a towel. She bounded up the stairs to her laundry hamper and started to wish that the hair ball _had_ attacked her.

Staring up at her were flannel pajamas. With cows on them. The moo moos.

"Anything but the moo moos," she whispered desperately to no one in particular.

* * *

"So," she said slowly, fifteen minutes later, as they both sat down for breakfast that she had quickly prepared. Cain looked up from his plate. "What are we doing today?" 

"Keeping you out of trouble."

"I'm not one of the Little Rascals, Cain, and oh stop that!" she slapped his hand away from his plate. He had been prodding at it with mock suspicion. "It's called a Pop Tart. It's delicious, especially when it is prepared in the gourmet manner as displayed before you."

"And you define gourmet as sticking it in that little box and burning yourself on it, after which you subsequently let out a string of oaths that would cause a Tin Man on duty in the Realm of the Unwanted to blush?"

"Being a waitress doesn't mean I can cook, Mr. Cain." DG pushed herself into a standing position to get the orange juice she had forgotten. She wrenched open the fridge and started the search.

"It's Wyatt, by the way. If that's not being to bold."

DG grinned, but only the organic eggs saw it. She shut the door.

"Fine them. Wyatt, would you like to go get some real food?"

He waited. "Whatever you want to do, Pr-"

"Hey!"

"-DG."

The girl bit her lip, blue eyes wandering over to the motorcycle outside.

"Do you trust me?" she asked, hating how her voice lifted and cracked at the end of the question. The man sitting at the kitchen table nodded, seriously.

DG grinned.

* * *

"You rode _this_ to work?" 

The girl crossed her arms about herself, looking down on the bike tenderly. "That's my baby so I would like it if you weren't so mean in front of it. But yes, Wyatt, I did."

The blonde man stared at it critically for a moment. "You know, only Tin Men were allowed on these, in the O.Z. Their speed was amazing."

"Yeah," she said dryly. "Tell me about it."

He seemed to be weighing his options. "We can take it-"

"Alright, hop on behind me." DG had quickly swung a leg over the bike and was strapping on her helmet.

"But only if I drive."

She stopped, and the strap swung loosely. "You sure? I mean, it's been like, a decade for you, and then, you know, this is _not_ the Outer Zone, so the laws are not the same."

"Does abiding by the law entail not hitting anyone and keeping the speedometer under the numbers on the signs we pass on the road?"

"Yes, but-" This was her _baby_.

"Then I really don't see how this could be bad. Move it."

DG was sure that the scooting movement she was making, with her legs the way they were and her helmet tipping to the side, was not attractive. The guard reached a hand out and straightened it before swinging a leg over himself and revving the engine. DG was pretty sure she had never used the seat before for anything but storage. She snorted.

"What's so funny back there?" he asked loudly, over his shoulder. DG leaned close so that he could hear her.

"Over here we call my seat the bitch seat."

He turned to face front.

DG leaned closer.

"Am I your bitch, Wyatt?"

He never answered, because then they jerked to a start down the dusty road, and she was forced to grab onto his waist to keep from falling off, her laughter thrown behind them in the wind.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: And Guest  
Author: **littleswirl**  
Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
Pairing: Cain/DG  
Rating: PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff  
Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.  
Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
Word Count: 2,161

* * *

Of course Cain decided to pull into the first diner that they passed. And it was Hilltop Cafe. It _had_ to be Hilltop Cafe . Where was the irony if it wasn't?

Apparently motorcycles and whatever they had in the O.Z. weren't_that_ different because the ride was perfect. All the stupid little things she usually forgot to do-like motioning for turns, putting the kick stand down (which would inevitably lead to her trying to stop it from falling over) well, he remembered.

And he moved with such _confidence_. DG was sort of envious.

"You coming or not?" he called over his shoulder, but then he stopped and turned with an expression that came with waiting for an explanation. This one, in particular, was caused by the young woman's fidgeting.

"You see, this is where I used to work, Wyatt."

His look turned unreadable, and she could clearly see the muscles in his jaw move smoothly when he clenched them. "If you didn't want to be seen with an old man like me, then you should have said something. We can go elsewhere." He angrily started back to the bike. DG grabbed his arm, desperately.

"That's not it. At all," she said firmly, in a way that she hoped ended _that _talk right then and there.

"For one thing, you are not old. Second, I never actually told them I was leaving, what with everything that went on, so I sort of walked out on them, right after being told how lucky I was to have a job here. And I am just a little nervous because the officer who was looking for me about oh, a few hours before um, that thing?" A family moved past them. DG could only imagine what they thought of the two of them, with their leather jackets and tense looks and '_out-of-placeness'_. "Well, he usually hits here in the afternoons to grab a cup of coffee and hand me my most recent ticket."

"So you're nervous?" he asked, disbelieving.

"Yes! Cops and sheriffs are like Tin Men, but without the looks or the leather or-shutting up now. Yes, I am nervous." Where the_hell_ had that come from?

He moved closer to her then, since the lunch crowd of usuals and tourists was straggling in. She ended up leaning against the bike, and the Tin Man put his hands on her shoulders. She found the weight to be pleasant.

"Never, ever, forget who you are, DG," but he said her name strangely. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

"Eleanor Roosevelt," she mumbled at the ground, but then looked up at him, surprised. "How-"

"Your father gave me a book from the Other Side when I received my new position. The quote was in the text."

She took his arm and they took the stairs quickly, and with one last deep breath DG walked into Hilltop Cafe diner.

Everything was the same as it had been two months earlier, and there was Joe in the kitchen, barking at Reese Mae that there was a plate up. But Reese was too busy gaping at DG in the doorway to get the patty melt.

"Why if it isn't our DG. Bless you, child, we missed you!"

DG stared, blankly, and she did not have to turn to know that Wyatt Cain had an eyebrow raised. He would probably never believe anything she said again. Lovely.

"Hey, Reese," DG said awkwardly, getting enveloped in a hug that left enfolded between more than Reese's arms. That woman needed something with a little more support. "I just wanted to say that I am _really_ sorry for walking out of here that day and never explaining-"

"Darlin' don't you worry about that; your folks came over and explained it."

"Because I had a perfectly good-They did?"  
"Why, if I just found out I was adopted, I would be in the same state, confused and scared. And then to go and find your momma? Takes guts, sweetheart. You just sit yourselves down wherever."

The seat cracked. DG forgot about the seats being so old. Usually she was working, and wasn't sitting in them.

"You were afraid of _that_?"

DG pushed around the metal napkin dispenser. "Well that wasn't exactly as bad as I thought it would be."

But the it got worse.

Somewhat.

"If it isn't little DG," came a voice from the table next to them. DG knew _that_ voice anywhere.

"Hello, Officer Gulch. Don't mind me, I'm sitting here, abiding the law."

She turned and gave him a little wave, for good measure. The officer looked over her shoulder at her table companion, who was, she saw when she turned back around, staring him down with his arms crossed. DG knew that he had one hand very, very close to his gun, and this was a public place, and she could only imagine how she was going to explain this to her parents. Either set.

"Oh, um, Officer Gulch, this is my…boyfriend. My boyfriend Wyatt."

She had truly, really, hoped that that would be the end of the conversation. Oh, how she was wrong.

The officer scooted his chair closer. "Is that right? You're not from around here, are ya?"

"No, can't say I am."

DG looked nervously between the two men. Both were old-fashioned gun slingers, but one of them had the legal right to arrest people in this world, and also had a set of handcuffs and a taser. Hopefully the officer wouldn't be resorting to any of his usual belittling, or any of those three things might be used.

"Where you hail from?"

"Oh you know, there." There was a very vague and unhelpful wave that came along with it, in a sort of circular motion.

The aging man with the shining badge made a small noise through his closed lips, one he usually made when he was writing DG a ticket.

"You look like you're one of us." Alright, so maybe this wasn't so bad. And it was close to the truth. Cain was a cop. Kind of. Well, he had been. But in a world with winged monkeys and ice caverns and possessed princess with magical powers.

"I'm in-" Cain looked to DG, forgetting what she had told him.

"The Secret Service," DG finished quickly, licking her lips. She placed a hand on his. "Honey, you said you didn't want to share that, remember?"

"It's fine, _dear_."

Oh the officer loved this, and DG could tell. Here was a man doing, presumably, the sort of thing he had wanted to do as a child, protecting someone and laying his life down with all the glamour and physical shape that went along with it. Here was a guy who had scored a younger girlfriend, didn't have the donut gut he was sporting, and probably was getting substantially better pay.

"So what sort of thing do you do, protect dignitaries and stuff?"

"The Queen." The truth, how it was awkward.

DG let out a nervous, loud laugh.

"Oh, you!" she said, punching him, hard. Of course it was Wyatt Cain, so it really had about the same effect on him as Glitch trying to get her to dance: it was more painful for her than him. "Calling Hillary Clinton 'the Queen'. Sometimes you are so funny!" DG threw some money on the table and grabbed his arm.

"Pleasure meeting you, Wyatt. Oh, and DG?"

Shit, he remembered. She turned with a bright smile. "Yes?"

"Don't you worry about that ticket, you here? When your parents told me about what happened, well, it just wasn't in my heart to do that to you."

So, mentally kicking herself, DG climbed onto the bike behind Cain and they sped off.

* * *

"The Queen? Wyatt Cain, I told you, we don't have them here," she angrily as she scooped potato salad onto her plate. Her parents were still out, _doing errands_, as they liked to call it when they disappeared for hours on end, returning with nothing but themselves and more energy as they went about their chores. Since DG was pretty sure they weren't able to well, engage in that sort of thing, she now guessed that they were recharging their batteries.

He was inspecting the food, eyeing her and the plate she had in front of her.

"This is a lot for me to take in; I'm trying. That's quite a lot of food on that plate of yours."

"Oh, you know that's not polite, to criticize how much food a girl takes. And I went through the same thing _without_ someone there to help me out. _And_ I was learning how to use my magic." She poked his shoulder with a celery stick.

"True." He took a spoonful of potato salad and chewed it, carefully, as if it might blow up in his mouth. "So when are you going to go sleep in your real room?"

"What?"

"Your real room. The one upstairs."

She set her plate down with a loud _clink_. "How the _hell_ did you know that?"

She had been using one of the two guest bedrooms since her room upstairs was just…well, Cain would be concerned if he knew that that was her room, so open to attacks as it was. That and it was messy and looked like a bomb made up of clothing had gone off in it.

"The guest room wasn't lived in, of course. And you know, the smell."

DG stopped chewing. "What?"

"It didn't smell like you," he said, pushing the potato salad around on his plate. He was trying to pick out the specks of seasoning. Really, he muttered it. Quietly.

She couldn't resist. "And what exactly do I smell like?" The grin spread across her face.

His plate dropped to the table now. "I'm going to take a look around the perimeter. Don't free any strangers from traps or break any laws or-"

"Yes, darling," she drawled as he stomped out.

* * *

She had the first dream that night.

_She didn't quite know what exactly had transpired, but Glitch had told her about it, and this dream version of the back of the truck is mostly what it was like; perhaps it was a bit smaller in real life, and maybe there weren't as many blankets, but in her dream Cain was shivering, and she was going to save him._

_"Wyatt," she says, whispering even though they are alone and the wind howls outside. "We have to get your body temperature up."_

_He moans and shivers, and she is reaching down to undress him, and suddenly she is under the blankets, bare skin pressed against bare skin, and he is trying to protest._

_"I saw it once, on something on National Geographic," she says in way of an explanation that he wouldn't accept in real life. "It stopped one guy from getting hypothermia."_

_She wraps her arms around him, and he presses his head into the space between her neck and her shoulder. The dream version of him does not smell as wonderful as he does in reality, but it's close._

_And somehow he's warm, and very much awake, and kissing her. He reaches an arm across and cups the back of her head delicately in his palm. _

_She's never done this. Not in real life. Not in a dream. It's strange and exhilarating and nowhere as awkward as she had assumed it would be. He's strong and warm and pushing her onto her back, hands brushing and holding._

_"Seems like you're okay." She can barely get it out between kisses and breaths._

_He moans again, but it's nothing like the sound he made earlier._

_And then he reaches lower and-_

DG shot out of bed, wide awake and gasping for breath. The sheets stuck to her from sweat and then of course, he knocked on the door.

"DG?" his voice floated up from the doorway below.

Could it get worse?

"DG, are you alright?"

Oh dear Dorothy, he was going to come up.

He took the stairs two at a time, gun out and looking for anything that could be a potential threat.

When he noticed she was still in her bed and not in any form of peril, he holstered the gun and walked over. Was there a way for her to disappear? She was going to have to ask Toto to teach her that trick.

"I heard you making noises."

She stared at him. Making noises. "Yeah, I was having a dream."

"You mean a nightmare?"

DG was very much aware there was a flush in her cheeks and well, if he stayed in the room any longer she might very well jump him. "Something like that. Goodnight, Wyatt."

She flipped over so that her back was to him, and he only remained in the room for a moment longer.

She was still awake when the sun rose, and their neighbor's rooster crowed.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: And Guest  
Author: littleswirl

Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
Pairing: Cain/DG  
Rating: PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff  
Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.  
Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
Word Count: 1,132

* * *

The next morning was the most embarrassing one of her life. She trudged down, after quickly getting dressed in the closest clothing she could find. Cain was somehow in another button-down linen shirt and pants. Snug pants, she noted as he moved to help her mother bring the plate of bacon over. They make everything look so nice and bi- 

"Sausage?" her RoboDad asked, holding out a bowl of the breakfast food. She humored Henry and took one without really looking up.

Her mother was very much aware of something being up with her daughter. Damn her receiver, or whatever it was that she's equipped with. She was studying her daughter.

"You okay, cupcake?" she asked, lightly.

"She had a nightmare," the new comer to the table answered for her. She glared at him. And then blushed when gray-blue eyes looked into her darker ones.

"What about?" her mother asked.

"I don't remember." Lie. Lie. Lie. And her mother knew. "Anyway, I was thinking that maybe we could go back to the O.Z. to, you know, check on everyone?"

No one answered. DG knew immediately that Something Was Wrong.

"Wyatt," she said, nervously. He was clearing his throat and patting his mouth. "Wyatt?"

"The O.Z. isn't safe right now, DG. Part of why your mother agreed was because of the LongCoats."

"They still think Az is in control, don't they? That she's still possessed?"

He nodded.

"But we should be there!" she pushed back her chair. "Cain, Raw and Glitch need us. And my sister and my parents…" she started to leave, but Cain was in the doorway.

He knew too easily how to calm her down, she thought. With just his hands on her shoulders and a steady gaze, he was able to convince her to sit back down.

"You're the heir apparent, DG," Henry said. "More important than the current Queen or your sister. They wanted to keep you here for a while."

DG poked angrily at her eggs. "We are going back after the wedding; they can't keep me here." This made her bodyguard give a dry laugh into his oatmeal.

"I'd like to see them try, sweetheart."

* * *

"Jeb is fine," she says soothingly as they were bringing in firewood. Her friend had been quietly watching the sky. "You raised him well." 

"I didn't raise him," he said, and she just assumed that it was out of humbleness.

She was wrong.

"We were going to separate, divorce." He said this quietly as a they sat on the porch, watching wind ripple through waves of grain. It's a bit like a dusty, dirty version of the lakes of Finaqua. Somewhat. DG tucked hair behind her ear and looked over at her companion, to see if he would continue.

"Andora and I, we just weren't going to make it as a married couple, and we knew it. We married much too young, and when we had Jeb, I thought the marriage would be saved.

"It wasn't. It got worse. We would fight over ever little thing; how to raise him, what to feed him. I wasn't even around all that much. I married during my Tin Man training, and had to travel, subsequently, afterwards." He turned and looked at her. "You have to, after you pass the training. Until they figure out where to put you," he said matter-of-factly.

"But you loved her," DG said, even if it hurt to say it, strangely.

"She was the mother of my child, of course I did. When I was home I doted on Jeb. He was just-I mean, kids are so amazing. They just _need_you, Deijhi, and Jeb looked up to me something fierce. So we held on. They were a tough five years."

"And then?"

"And then she was pregnant again."

DG felt her stomach turn a little at that. She saw him swallow heavily, as if fighting back the bile she felt.

"I had been gone for five months. She was due in seven."

"Oh, Wyatt," she breathed, taking his hand. To her surprise, he did not fight her.

His eyes watered. "They came six weeks after that. And you know the rest. Should have been another grave marker there. That was still a child, a life that didn't-never had a choice, a chance…That's why I wanted to find her, believe she was alive and raising both children. Living a life she deserved to live after being tied to me for half a decade, of never really seeing me. I wanted to know that she had forgiven me for how much I hated her at first when she had told me."

Quiet settled for a moment before he brought it down, purposely. "Any deep, dark secrets you want to share with the blubbering Tin Man?"

She squeezed their joined hands. "You are _not_ blubbering, Wyatt Cain." She settled her head against the back of the swinging love seat with a sigh.

"I was going to leave here, it was a bit of Fate intervening I guess that kept me from going. I was going to be buying my plane ticket the morning after the Tornado picked me up."

"Where to?"

She gave him a crooked little smile, more abashed than anything else. "Australia. It's on the other side of the globe, and warm, and beautiful, and sunny. A lot like the Outer Zone, from the pictures on the brochure."

"Do you still want to go?"

DG laughed, and it felt good to do it without having to worry about it. Her shoulders felt light. "I was being immature and stupid. My life is too wonderful to leave on hold or to abandon. Someday, maybe." DG turned her head and found herself looking up at Wyatt. "Would you like to go with me? You would like it, I think. They had these men call Bushrangers; you'd like them." It sounded so delicate and fragile a hope when it came out of her mouth.

He turned to face her, leaning his head against the upholstered seat, as well. "Wherever you go, I'll go, Deij."

"Guard or not?"

"Guard or not."

And then they sat watching the sun set over Kansas farmland, quiet and accepting of one another and holding hands. DG was struck by how content she felt there, and pictured the two of them old and grey, the princess-Queen, then, she mused-and her faithful companion, doing the same thing. She could not, for the life of her, picture anyone else besides her.

And it was in that moment that she realized she was in very, very, serious trouble.

"I hate waiting just as much as you," he said gruffly.

She looked over at him, trying to figure out exactly what he meant by it.

And then she realized he meant everything.


	5. Chapter 5

Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents

Pairing: Cain/DG

Rating: PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff

Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.

Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.

Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.

Word Count: 2,388

* * *

"Something's wrong with you," he said the next morning as DG flipped through a newspaper. They were so much more fun when they were in gold, glittery print that did not rub off on your fingers, like in the O.Z.. She did not look up.

"I'm fine," she said calmly. There was another dream last night. This one involved the wall of the prison cell. In a strange way, she was a bit upset that they were in the middle of tearing that castle down. It may have been sort of fun to try, if she could convince him.

Oh right. That meant telling him first. And him not laughing at her or coughing uncomfortably before finding something to do that was more appealing, like count floorboards.

"You were having…disturbed dreams last night." Not a question. Damn it. She would have to go buy herself duct tape and him earplugs.

"Yeah, I think I have to lay off the coffee. That might help."

He sidled up to where she sat at the counter and hoisted himself up on a stool next to her. "Would you like to talk about it?"

Oh dear O.Z., why her?

"No." She tossed down the paper and hopped off of the stool. Both of her parents were tall, why was she so short? "So where do you want to go today, what would you like to do?"

"You tell me, you're the princess."

She shook her head. "I need to be distracted, Wyatt." And not the way she was right then. "So I want to show you this world. My world. You helped me so much in the other one that it's the least I can do for my very own walking Idiot's Guide to the Outer Zone. And yes, that is a compliment."

So they went to the movies. Wyatt, it turned out, loved them. He adored them. He laughed and talk aloud to the screen. DG found herself a little relieved that no one else was around to hear him, but liked getting to see him in such a bright mood.

She took him to get some more clothes for the wedding; the tailors on the other Side were very good at what they did, but they couldn't get the clothes spot on. She was still in need of a dress for the reception, so she convinced Wyatt that she could go into the dressing room without him following.

"So that's the date, huh?" asked a low voice. DG turned from the dressing room door and fighting with the clothing hangers to see Carly wiggling her eyebrows, where the flesh was bright pink. She smelled like the hair salon.

DG turned towards the doorway, where Cain was trying to look inconspicuous. Carly was grinning.

"Doll, where did you find him? Tell me he has a brother."

"Uh, he-I met him when I went to find my mother. We sort of just never left each other." She felt sort of bad that she did not know if he had siblings. Or parents that were missing him. Or much of anything, really.

"Cute," she cooed. "Just as cute as that ass on him. My God." She held a cocktail dress up for inspection and DG cleared her throat.

"So what's he like?"

"Loyal. Kind. Good sense of humor. Other things I cannot really name," she answered truthfully, quietly. However, her friend just gave her an exasperated look.

"You know what I mean, DG."

DG looked straight into the mirror. "I don't think I do, Carly," she said carefully.

"You haven't, have you?"

DG pulled at the short skirt and ignored her friend.

"Oh my God you two are waiting aren't you? That's sweet. And old-fashioned. But you. You were the only one of us at school that graduated a virgin. Except for Mona, of course. And Sarah doesn't count; she's basically had that ring since the first day of high school. I bet you still are."

"Not all of us drop our pants as frequently as we breathe, okay? So what if I've been waiting. I have some sense of self respect." She started towards the doorway, but then turned. "And when we do, it will be safe and not in the back of a car, and it will because we both agree to and not because of Peppermint Schnapps!"

"Come on, Wyatt, we're leaving," she said angrily and stormed out of the store.

Nothing was said until she noticed her friend staring her. "What?"

"You're just," he coughed into his hand, trying to hide a laugh. She slapped his arm. "You're cute when you get angry."

DG gaped.

"Perhaps even cuter than what you two were discussing earlier, but…"

It was not anatomically possible for her to gape any wider than she was now.

"You weren't supposed to hear that! The dressing room is sacred second only to our ridiculously large women's rooms, which are better than your bathrooms."

They started to weave their way through the crowds. Cain grabbed a hold of her hand. "They did this a lot quicker in the movies, and with music," he pointed out as she stuffed the clothes into the backpack she carried with her.

"Well," she said, wryly, "real life doesn't have montages."

The automatic doors opened onto the parking lot. He helped her onto the bike, after she helped him put his helmet on. It was candy apple red, and the only thing they had in the store. The giggle she had been holding back was let loose when he had turned and seen his reflection in a window.

"Now that is a noise I have never heard you make. And I have a heard quite a few of them over the past few nights." It was muffled but she knew exactly what he was saying.

"Do you have any sense of appropriateness no you don't. If I had a stick right now, Mr. Cain…Now home, Jeeves."

He sidled onto the bike with a lazy grin, after checking to make sure it had not been tampered with. He looked like the picture on the cover of a cheesy romance novel.

* * *

He was screaming.

DG tried to wake him delicately, but it wasn't working. "Wyatt?"

She shook him.

His eyes popped open, and he clung to her as he took a long, shuttering breath that sounded as

if he had just surfaced above water. "Outside," he managed to gasp.

She helped him down the stairs and out the front door, onto the porch. He dry heaved over the side of the railing, and DG could only rub his back and try to soothe him.

"I will never make fun of you again, honey," he groaned, wiping his mouth even though nothing had come out. She quickly got him a glass of water. "You shouldn't have had to see that."

"But I did. And I was able to help, so it really doesn't matter."

There were crickets chirping.

"It was the Suit."

"Same as always, huh?" she asked. He looked over his shoulder at her, a haunted look on his

face.

"No," he said, hollowly. "Worse."

Something needed to be said. "Well you just pwned me in the bad dreams department," she said lightly, returning her hand to his back. He seemed to relax when she continued the rubbing motion. She moved closer to his neck, messaging the muscle with her fingers in a move that was surprisingly second-nature.

"I don't even know what half of that means." He sounded rueful.

DG shrugged, even if he couldn't see it. "That's alright, I'm kind of getting used to it."

He pushed off of the railing, suddenly wide awake. Somehow, however, he hadn't shaken off her hand. "No, it's not, damn it. You should have someone understand you, and I mean, really, understand you. Not just here, but in both worlds. Someone who will understand when you crack that joke about that Britney Spears and leaving her children in Papay while looking for cigarettes and have someone understand it. You deserve that, at the very least. Someone who-"

DG took a flying leap, but she took it quietly. "You could be that person."

He was staring at her.

Her heart was fluttering as she looked up into his face. With his guard down, Wyatt Cain looked younger and the intensity in his eyes was enough to knock the breath out of her.

"Would you want me to be?"

She nodded, mesmerized by their close proximity and his smell and his warmth. His gaze drifted lower, and she knew what was coming.

Barefoot, and in her sleep clothes, with only his body to keep the morning chill from getting to her, DG felt like she was finally home. Later on she would realize this revelation came in the same spot that she had announced to her parents that she did not feel that this house was her home, and it still wasn't.

Wyatt had a hand tangled in her hair, and another on her hip, where it seemed to burn in a way that made her skin sing. His lips moved with a surprising softness against hers and a delicate need that she felt as well. It was fireworks and sparks of electricity and choirs singing choruses. She pushed herself up on tiptoe and pulled his mouth closer. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears, but she could feel his where their lips touched. The need for oxygen was the only thing that caused her to pull her head back slightly. He took that as a sign of something else, however. He stepped back and DG immediately felt the loss.

"Forgive me," he said hoarsely. She had done that to him. That sent a thrill through her.

"Not for that. Not ever. I am never forgetting that you can do that."

He sat heavily on the love seat, and DG followed. It creaked with the weight of two people on it.

"I'm a Tin Man, Deijhi. You and I know full well that your parents expect you to marry well. You cannot be involved with someone like me if you ever want to be able to do that."

She crossed her legs and turned to sit sideways on the swing. "True. But maybe my definition of marrying well is different from theirs. I always thought it meant being in a healthy relationship. Call it romantically eccentric, but I always wanted someone who would watch old movies with me on a Saturday and sleep in on rainy days. Someone I could talk to without fear of being judged or criticized or put down. Someone who would love me and not just want to get into my pants."

"There's someone out there like that, Deijhi." He could be thick sometimes.

"Munchkin balls, I'm saying I think that…you know, we should try it." DG pulled a loose string out of the bottom of her pants.

"I'd call it eccentrically romantic," he offered, and she raised an eyebrow.

And there was something else niggling at her. "You say my name funny."

He cleared his throat. "I don't. Your parents did not name a princess with only two letters; that would be too easy to forge on documents."

She leaned forward and poked him in the chest. "There's something more to that and I can tell just from how you said that. Spill, Mister."

He grabbed up the offending finger and brought the hand to rest on his chest. Just above his heart. "I say your name informally."

The princess waited.

"Affectionately," he said quickly. "The way someone would that was on more…intimate terms."

DG couldn't stop the grin on her face. It was big and stupid and the same one she had gotten the first time she and her friends had gotten drunk. This was the Happy Drunk DG smile. "And how exactly would I say your name?"

It wasn't really different. You just had to breathe when you said it, and she found that strangely accurate, breathing his name. She did it so much when she exhaled, anyway.

"Wyatt." She tried it out, and he drew her close into strong arms. Since she was almost there as it were, DG slid into his lap.

He kissed her slowly the second time, taking his time and it was liquid gold and still just as amazing as the first. There were many things he was good at. Kissing was, she decided, almost at the top of the list.

"You are very good at fixing old metal pieces of junk, you know. Fixed this old ticker." He patted the skin above his heart with her hand, covering it and keeping it there. "You forgot to do one thing though, when you were done."

Her eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to think of something she had done to this hypothetical piece of junk which was, in fact, his heart. "Why exactly am I a bad mechanic and did you get a warranty?"

He kissed her again. "You forgot to give my heart back when you were finished."

Crying was something she rarely ever did, but it happened so quickly she couldn't stop them.

"Oh," she managed to get out of her contracting chest. She leaned in and captured his lips, exhaling and saying his name at the same time. DG had always felt awkward and inexperienced in high school and the few years thereafter when it came to matters of romance. But something about the way it felt to simply touch Wyatt was enough to make her feel confident and sure of herself.

He pulled back just as she had found an angle that had allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder, and she was aware that there was a thumb just under the hem of her shirt on her hip.

"So I take it you've been having those dreams too?"

DG's heavy lidded eyes flew open.

"You mean you've been having them, too?" DG had jerked back so quickly that she had slipped off of his lap and landed with a heavy thud on the porch. For the briefest of seconds before she blacked out, Wyatt's face floated in front of her, and she thought that perhaps this was the most dignified way to get out of the situation, considering.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 1,368**

* * *

Being awake but keeping her eyes closed was quite pleasant. Until Cain put the icepack at the base of her skull. She screeched. DG had never screeched before.

"You're out of your leather-obsessed brain," she whined into her pillow, squirming to get away from the icepack. He placed a warm, firm hand on her shoulder to keep her in place.

"Your parents think you slipped on the porch, since Henry had just repainted the wood with that high glossy stuff. For the-"

"Kitchen," DG sighed, wincing as she rolled to face him, subsequently trapping his hand and arm under her head, forcing him to lean closer. It wasn't intended, but it was a nice side effect. The clock only read an hour after they had slipped out onto the porch, so she knew she had not been unconscious for too long.

He looked liked he was really going to be sick. "I let you get hurt."

Wyatt was going über-male on her, and all she really wanted was the feeling of his lips on hers. She tried to put a hand on his shoulder and pull him closer, but he would not have it.

"I'm serious, Deij. In a year or two from now, the fighting will be over, and the only reason you or your sister will need protecting from is suitors." That made her stomach churn; she had forgotten that was an inescapable part of her future. "I'm good at fighting, and very little else. If I fail at this I have _nothing_."

"You cannot hold yourself at fault for my bouts of gravity challenge, Wyatt. And that is not true. You are great at a number of things. And people are always paranoid, especially royalty; there will always be a need for you." She braced herself and took a deep breath before reaching a hand up to trace along his jaw line. "And I will always need you."

There was the sound of feet on the stairs and both quickly extracted their hands from one another.

"There's our girl. How are you feeling?" her RoboMom asked, somehow taking Wyatt's place on the bed after a graceful descent that reminded DG of Lavender Eyes. Her Tin Man leaned against the wall, and turned to look at the drawing on the wall.

"Like I slipped and fell on a porch; which I did."

Her mother gave her a small smile. "Can I get you anything?"

"Nah, I'm fine," she replied with a crooked half-smile. "I think I'll just rest a little before I start packing."

Her RoboMom leaned down, pecked her daughter on the cheek, and left. She looked back over her shoulder with a worrying look only once before traveling down the stairs.

It was quiet again, and DG liked the feeling of not having to fill silence. It was a comfortable silence, and her opinion varied quite a bit from Uma Therman's.

"By the time we get back, Glitch will be out of therapy and we can visit," Wyatt said just as she was starting to fall back to sleep. "Sorry."

She shook her head and sat up, propping herself against the headboard and patting the edge of her bed. "I shouldn't be sleeping anyway, if I really did get a concussion."

"And you might have one of those dreams that get you hot and bothered again."

She hit him with a pillow to cover her embarrassment. It was the truth, but it didn't make it any better. Then she realized something, and how that must be how the cat who ate the canary felt.

"Wait just a second, Mister Cain. You said you were having them, too. How, I am not quite sure, since I think a few hours ago was the first time I have ever seen you sleep."

He had the decency to look chagrinned. "You remembered."

"What was in yours? And why are we having them?"

Wyatt nervously glanced over his shoulder at the stairs and back at the dark haired woman. "I think you told her you were going to rest."

"You are not getting out of this!" But he was anyway. He handed her 'that little music box of hers' as he called it, after gingerly picking it up. Then he went down the stairs as well.

* * *

The first thing Cain said, after making her wait in the doorway while he swept the room like every cop in every crime show she had ever seen (but making it look a hell of a lot better) was "There's only one bed."

She started to kick her bag, navy blue Converse connecting with the edge of the leather valise to no avail. He walked back over and grabbed both cases with no effort and placed them on the small table in the corner of the room.

DG flopped onto the bed's paisley coverlet, quickly undoing the maid's perfectly smoothed covers. It was not as nice as her bed in the castle, but not many were. Hell, they had silk sheep there, so you couldn't really beat that. "Yeah, well when you see your friend's supposed boyfriend and he looks like _you_, people assume things. Plus it's cheaper."

Wyatt was eyeing her and the bed as if the combination created an unstoppable plague if left too long. "But there's only one bed."

She rolled over and off of the side, joining him near the window to kiss him quickly on the cheek. "I_ knew_ you were smart, Wyatt," she sighed in mock contentment.

"DG, we need to talk about this." But she didn't really think he meant it, because his hand was at the small of her back, making it's way under the edge of her shirt, and his mouth was so close. "I mean it."

Frustrated, the young woman rested her forehead against the man's, which was still furrowed. "I'm a princess; I say I want to be able to sneak off into dark corners and be ravished within an inch of my life by my bodyguard. My word is law," she said in a serious voice. "And you are a Tin Man, so it's your job to uphold what I say."

"'Ravished within'…Deij-And what did you mean by 'looking like me'?" He pulled his head back, but she had rested her forearms on his shoulders, and was smiling lazily up at him.

"Not only will Carly want to eat you up with a spoon, but I have all of my old school's pretty cheerleaders who will be fawning over you, making cow eyes and giggling and throwing large amounts of heaving cleavage your way. And I don't have my trusty stick to fend them off."

"What do a bunch of girls have that a Princess of Light doesn't? And why would I want it anyway?"

"They've got_ boobs_, Cain. Nice ones."

"You do too," he answered without thinking. Upon realizing what he said, he quickly added "I would assume."

DG bit her lip and walked back over to the bed to find her outfit for the cocktail party.

Princess of Light…it made her think of the story and how it ended. How the Castle of Ice turned out to not be a castle at all. It was a man.

"But they're just fairytales, Dad," she would say as a child, sitting Indian style on her bed as her mother braided her hair in pigtails and her father sat in the old rocking chair. "How can a man-"

"Someday, Princess," he said, because that was what she thought her nickname was. "Someday you will see that fairytales aren't as imaginary as you think. That these stories might help you out."

Frozen in time in a sea of ice…the Suit. DG looked up at the man standing near the window.

"Something wrong?" he asked when he noticed she was staring. She shook her head. "No, just-just thinking."

_Above all else she knew that this mountain was more than it appeared._

_It was home._

She remembered his face after she had said that, surprised and strange and uncomfortable. She had thought it was because of the cold.

The dreams…the story…that kiss. DG was at the edge of something very big and very new.


	7. Chapter 7

**Title**: And Guest

**Author**: Strangelittleswirl

**Characters**: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents

**Pairing**: Cain/DG

**Rating**: PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff

**Summary**: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.

**Warning**: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.

**Disclaimer**: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.

**Word Count**: 2,244

* * *

DG was glad she had Cain's arm to hang on to as they walked into the cocktail party; the heels she was wearing were stilettos and clinging to her companion kept her from wobbling.

"Just remember to breathe, honey." She looked up at the blonde man, and that was sort of hard, because really, he looked gorgeous and the last place she wanted to be was in a room with tons of people curious to see her.

Besides, none of these people were trying to kill her, court her, or bother her over legislative matters. They were here for Sarah's wedding, and they were old schoolmates.

Carly and Mona, with their respective dates, were sitting towards the left waving DG down frantically. Out of the three friends, she had the most fabric on her. But Carly was wooing her teacher, still, and Mona had worn what she wanted, covering it with a sheer sari. And Mona had boobs. DG had been jealous since sophomore year of high school.

"Hey guys. Everybody, this is Wyatt." Because the word 'Wyatt' and 'boyfriend' were not accurate together, but they made her want to dance around. In her underwear. With Wyatt in her room. "Wyatt these are the two girls that decided fraternizing with me was not potentially dangerous to their health, physical and mental, and the guys who got stuck tagging along with them."

Carly put a hand out to shake his. "Carly Parker, and it's a pleasure." Oh she was doing that stupid leaning thing. DG had been spot on with her boobs prediction. They were out in full force.

"Hi, Mr. Barneby! Am I ever getting that report on _The Old Man and the Sea_ back?"

He sputtered into his glass of wine. Carly dropped Cain's hand and glared. DG continued to look innocent.

"Hey, I'm Mona Pattel. Don't try to shake my hand because my brother Isha will look up from his PSP and see it and then tell my parents," she said dully. Mona was actually eighteen now but had graduated at the same time as Carly and DG, and they had taken her under their wing instantly upon meeting. She was now at an Ivy League school on the east coast, interning somewhere that caused her phone line to be wire tapped, and not really enjoying life, since her cousin Vinay followed her like a second shadow. But not in the hot way DG had Cain.

Wyatt gave her a little wave and then pulled out DG's chair before sitting himself. DG struggled to move her seat closer to the table with little jumpy movements. Noticing, even while answering one of Mr. Barneby's questions, Wyatt leaned back casually and draped an arm over the back of DG's chair-and pushed it in as if it weighed nothing.

Sarah had called it a cocktail party, but it was really a buffet with booze. Carly was knocking them back while Mona looked on enviously, laughing loudly at anything their old math teacher said. Wyatt refused the drink, as did she. Maybe he was on duty, but she wanted to make sure that he couldn't blame any of her actions on alcohol.

There were the usual occupational questions. Wyatt handed them gracefully while acting like a dutiful boyfriend.

Sarah was an enigma of sorts; she had refused on all parts to allow for a real bachelorette party with male strippers or a night at a club, but instead decided that the four girls should go to a concert. Hell, not that DG complained, but there was just something off about that chick. It was probably the explanation for their easy friendship.

Then things sort of got heated.

It started easily enough, with small signs of affection on DG and Cain's parts equally: hand holding and then even a possessive knee grab under the table from DG that caused Wyatt to look sideways. And then Wyatt pulled her chair closer. He would occasionally eat something off of her plate, and then one of his arms seemed to take up permanent residence around her shoulder. Something about being around him made her feel as if she was imbibing instead of Carly.

"So are we excited about tonight?" asked Sarah when she came over and squatted between Mona and DG, who was currently getting chills from a certain gunman's fingers twirling a bit of her hair around his finger while discussing football with Barneby. How had he learned-Quite frankly DG could give a flying witch about where he had learned about it, as long as he kept touching her. When had she gotten so horny?

"I'd prefer it if you kept that between us, Sarah," Mona said, nervously, looking over at her brother. DG gave Sarah and Mona a small smile, and went around to Isha, showing him the God cheat for the game he was on. Big sacrifice right there. Cain's eyes were on her from across the table, and DG felt the room tilt a little.

When she sat back down, his arm took up it's customary spot and pulled her close. He must have noticed the little chill that ran up her spine from when he went to whisper in her ear, because he laughed, and a puff of hot air caused some of her loose hairs to stir. "Mind explaining about what happens tonight?"

She had some ideas, but knew what he meant. "Well, the girls and I were going to go to a concert."

"And what is that, Princess?"

She swallowed. "A bit like the Mystic Man's, but loud, and bigger, and really crowded. Very fun."

"Are you mad, Deij?"

Should have seen this coming. She hadn't even gotten to part about pushing your way through close bodies to be as close to the speakers as possible, or the part where you push the drunk guy away. "It's Sarah's last big hurrah as a single woman."

The others at the table were in a heated discussion of their high school football team's prospects of victory, and did not notice the two of them quarreling.

"As your bodyguard, I highly suggest _not_ going."

"And as the girl who will never get the chance to have her own bachelorette party, I insist upon it," she snapped. Realizing how spoiled that had come out, she gave him an apologetic look. "Just let me ride in the limo with them, follow on the bike. I'll make sure I find you before we go in. And do not panic. You shouldn't even be there, these things are usually an all girl thing."

"Like the stag celebration, but for women?" When he saw how confused she looked, he elaborated. "The night before the wedding ceremony, the men go out and make sure the groom is ready to-What exactly will you be doing?"

She shrugged. "Dancing. Listening to music." Hopefully not explaining to security why the guy with the weird gun had knocked some drunk guy around.

He settled back in his chair, light blue eyes on her. "Fine. I'll follow on the bike. But if it's anything like what I think it is, you're coming back with me?"

She kissed him on the cheek. "The best, that's what you are, Watcher-mine."

* * *

"No. No. No" repeated Wyatt when he found her just inside the doors, looking panicked and feral. DG drew him farther into the crowd, even while he tried to resist.

"_Please_, Wyatt; this is my last chance," she cajoled. "After this Sarah will be having babies and settling into that whole phase of life where she tries to emulate Martha Stewart and having panic attacks when her leave centerpieces don't come out right, and Mona will be rebelling after years of sexual repression, and Carly will be, well, Carly. This is it. I'll be in the O.Z.. Dorothy knows when we will all be together again like this."

He looked liked he was sighing. Silently, she congratulated herself on picking out the leather blazer he was wearing. It made his shoulders (and everything else) look fantastic. "Fine. But I'm not leaving your side."

She half-assed explained it to her friends, really saying something nonsensical, and over the music, they pretended to understand why the hot Secret Service boyfriend came along.

Wyatt Cain looked incredibly awkward. DG stood on tiptoe and kissed him quickly before he could protest. "Relax."

"I can't dance, Deij," he said, but he was pretty busy looking down her shirt, which was a simple, low v-cut thing, so he did not really notice when she placed his hands on her hips until she really had done it.

"I can't either. This is just swaying. If I can do it without falling flat on my ass somehow, you can do it, too."

And then she turned around and he made an interesting noise.

Mona, who had snuck out after her brother had 'somehow' had something he was slightly allergic to and thereby guzzled down children's Benadryl like there was no tomorrow, grabbed some blonde haired guy that DG couldn't really see and was having a grand old time. Carly and Sarah were off in the crowd somewhere.

A guy pushed Cain from behind, and suddenly there wasn't that arm's length distance between them. The dark haired woman turned her head slightly.

"Okay?"

He swallowed heavily as he nodded, but then averted his eyes. Maybe she wasn't being that fair to him. She turned back around and gave him the most sparkling smile she could before mouthing 'thank you'.

Wyatt's eyes were dilated, and the darkness of them was beautiful, in a masculine sort of way. They settled their gaze on her lips, and he murmured something before claiming her mouth with his own.

DG had never really been into the whole 'grind against a guy and make out as much as possible with clothing on for as long as you can at a concert' thing, but the idea was sounding very nice at the moment. He nipped at her lower lip, at the same time he fully wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing her to him roughly and she gasped.

So this was French kissing.

DG was virginal only in the physical sense of the word, or so she thought. But the squick factor she had always associated with this aspect of kissing was quickly erased when Wyatt Cain slipped his tongue into her mouth, finding some little spot of nerve endings in there she didn't even know about and sliding his tongue against hers.

DG felt herself groan, because she couldn't hear it, and pressed herself closer. Cain made a similar noise that rumbled and she felt it in her own mouth.

This swaying and pressing and kissing thing wasn't cutting it, and it really was too hot in there, anyway. Before DG could even say a word, Wyatt rumbled in her ear the question, and her answer was a "Good Gale, _yes_!"

So still sort of clinging to each other, DG found Carly, because Mona was off somewhere (more power to the poor girl), and told her they were going to go, and she smirked and waved them off with a thumbs off.

The bike ride back to the hotel couldn't be over quick enough.

"We shouldn't be doing this," he whispered hoarsely into her ear before kissing right below it. She kicked the door shut with her foot.

DG didn't answer, because she knew he was correct in some ways.

"I. Said." He was kissing his way down her neck, punctuating each word with an open-mouthed kiss, and she felt herself start to tremble. "We shouldn't."

"I heard you," she managed out. "But I'm ignoring you. I can't think of a good reason I haven't already given at some point and I can't make it sound good, either. Logic is kinda fuzzy right now."

Her knees hit the back of the bed, and she brought him down with her; he covered her body with his, winding an arm around her waist. She had never really thought that this sort of thing would be enjoyable, what with the weight of someone on top of her. The girl had always pictured a bedspring poking into her back at some important moment and ruining it. She prayed this was a Posturepedic. With a shaking hand, she found where his shirt was tucked into his pants and forced her hand under and upward, gliding over warm, firm flesh with the lightest of hair. He groaned and recoiled, which was sort of awkward because she came with him. He had tucked in his shirt as if he had meant serious business.

"Stuck." DG applauded herself for still being able to form words. At all. And get them to pass by her lips without making them sound like a dead language.

He unbuttoned his shirt to get her hand out.

And _that's_ when the door flew open.

Wyatt had rolled her over the side of the bed with him and pulled his gun on the two people groping in the doorway before DG could even reach for her discarded high heel as a makeshift weapon.

Mona looked up from kissing whoever the guy was in shock. And then the guy lifted his head. DG wasn't quite sure if she should laugh hysterically or dissolve into tears.

"Dad?"

"Jeb?"

DG groaned into Wyatt's chest. "Can my mom just appear in a bubble or something so we can get this over with?"

**Notes**: Vinay means good behavior and Isha means one who protects. :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: And Guest**  
**Author:** strangelittleswirl  
**Characters:**Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
**Pairing**: Cain/DG  
**Rating:** PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff  
**Summary:** When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
**Warning:**I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.  
**Disclaimer:** It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
**Word Count: **1,547

* * *

So here they were, a jolly bunch. Wyatt was still clutching at DG, shirt wide open. Jeb was trying to figure out what was going on, and Mona- 

"Mona, honey, why don't you sit on the bed," suggested DG, extracting herself from Wyatt's grasp. Jeb gave her a curt bow as she steered her towards the bed. It was a lot more mussed than before. Wyatt was eyeing his son in a way that made DG wonder if he should have that revolver in his grasp. Mona stared around at them with glassy eyes.

"Son, how the hell did you get here?"

"I took a Storm. The Queen offered me the chance, and said I could be your back up if need be, so she ordered the storm to leave me near the Princess's house." He then turned to address the princess, and DG felt a wave of dread. Not with her friend in the room. "Forgive me, your Highness, I did not mean to barge in on your-God Gale, Dad! That's the Princess!" The realization dawned of what he had just walked in on.

DG wanted to tear her hair out. "We are both aware of that fact, Jeb."

"She's half your age!"

"What, did you inherit the same brain or something? We've gone through this prior to your entrance, Jeb. Now if you could explain to me why you were groping my friend in the door way." DG's eyes widened. "You two were looking for a room, weren't you? Mona, you don't even know him! I always said that Carly was a bad influence on you."

But her friend wasn't really listening. "Why did they call you 'Princess', DG?"

DG looked over to Wyatt for help, but he was buttoning his shirt back up. "Because-well," DG trailed off, and then sat down on the bed next to her friend. "Mona, I am one. My mom? Yeah, not a politician. And Wyatt isn't in the Secret Service; he's my bodyguard. He came with me to protect me."

"But you were just-"

"Yeah," DG drawled with a nervous laugh. "About that. Well, call me Rach Marron, I guess." Her friend seemed to be in shock.

"I just through he was joking when he said he was looking for a princess," she said in a small voice.

"I still want to know what exactly you were up to, Jeb." Cain had his hands on his hips and he was fixing his son with a stony gaze. His son said he'd like to know the same about his father. DG rolled her eyes.

"Alright, I am going to walk Mona back to her room now, bye!"

The second she closed the door it shook with the level of their voices. Mona sluggishly followed.

"So he was telling the truth?"

"Yup."

"But you're not foreign."

She was not going to throw in the whole magic powers or alternative plane of existence stuff because they were passing a steep staircase. She guided her friend into her room and into bed.

When she came back, Jeb was no where in sight, and Cain was standing, brooding at the window. She walked over and leaned against his side.

"Should I be worried about a noise violation?" DG asked, looking up at him. He shook his head.

"Jeb is not too happy about what he saw. I'm not very proud that that's what he saw when he walked in here."

DG frowned. "Doesn't he realize that you're human?"

"We're not married, Deij. That sort of thing-I mean, I've seen your movies and that small screen in the box, but that sort of thing isn't done in the Outer Zone."

This disappointed and happily surprised the blue-eyed woman. It was a girl's dream to find a guy who was willing to wait.

"So, where exactly was that leading to before?" Wyatt closed his eyes.

"I got carried away, Deijhi, and for that, I apologize. It cannot go anywhere. At least…"

She like the 'at least' part. It was amazing how quickly one's spirits could sink and rise back up. She gave him one last squeeze before going into the bathroom to change into pajamas. Well if she had known about O.Z. celibacy before packing, she would not have packed _this_. It was thin and satin and easily removable. DG took a breath and wrenched the door open.

He was sitting in the chair next to the bed, flipping idly through the hotel room bible when she came out. He started to message the bridge of his nose when she came out.

"You're going to be the death of me, Deijhi," he said with a groan. She hurried over to the bed and slipped under the sheets. An hour ago, she had not expected the night to end like this.

"Well if I had had the information that I have _now_," she said pointedly before settling down, but rolling onto her side to face him. He let out a small snort and turned to the window.

"I want to see you smile; you shouldn't feel the need to hide it."

He sighed and dropped the book on the bedside table between them. "Too sharp, Princess."

DG did try to sleep, she really did. But it had been niggling at her since she had realized it. "Cain, can I pick your brain?"

He had turned off the light, so in the dark she heard "No, Glitch's is probably more acceptable."

"Oh 'ha'. Seriously."

"Shoot."

DG licked her lips. "I would rather you be over here, you know, so I don't feel like I am potentially addressing the fichus during all of this."

The bed dipped and then the smell of leather and Wyatt surrounded her. DG sat up. In the darkness of the room, the lights outside made his eyes an impossible bright blue.

"Do you _know_the story of the Daughter of Light and the-"

"Mountain frozen in Time in a sea of ice? Yes, Deij, all of the children in the O.Z. know the story," he said softly.

"Do they know the whole story? Where in the end, it's not a mountain at all?"

"It's a man," he said shortly. "Who was the home. For the pri-Daughter of Light. The Mystic Man would tell it to me a lot when I had a solo shift."

"Hmmm," she sighed. "You never explained that whole dreaming thing to me, you know. And since we're not doing anything else right now…"

"In the O.Z., we don't have that television stuff to go on to find spouses. We have a test."

"A test?" she frowned. "Does it involve peeing on a stick?"

"Pee-I don't think so. The truth is I am not quite sure what it entails. Adora and I chose not to take it. We thought that we didn't need to," he gave a soft chuckle. "The Mystic Man was adamant that we take it. Said we should 'before we continue'."

She kneed his thigh, her bone connecting comfortably with his firm muscles. "You still haven't explained the dream stuff."

"Oh," he said, clearing his throat "Well. They say that dreaming, among other things, is a sign that you found the person you are supposed to-You said you had those dreams from your mother? Dreams are a very big deal in the O.Z.."

"What did you dream of, Wyatt?"

He breathed her name with a sigh, but she retorted by saying his that special way, and then he was sliding down to see her face. Stupid on his part, really, she thought. It made it that much easier just to launch herself at him.

"I dreamed of the truck, but you were there."

She found herself blushing and playing with a button on his shirt, smooth and small under her fingers. "I tried to save you and things got a little crazy."

DG could hear him swallow, and the bit of shirt under her hand moved as he nodded. "To say the least."

"And then we were in the prison, and I had thought you were dead and I"-he sucked in a deep breath, holding it for a second before letting it go. "The Mystic Man was right. I did know it. I knew who you were. I knew the second DeMilo was leering at you and I wanted to kill him. It was hard to step out of the back of that truck that day."

"I tried to stop you," she felt the need to whisper.

"And you nearly did, too. I just wasn't completely ready, I thought. Not ready to accept that Adora and I really weren't…He said it too, the bastard. And made me promise to never leave your side."

"Is that why you're here, Wyatt? Because he said that?"

He kissed her. It was an answer enough, if not over too quickly.

"Get some sleep, my Deijhi, and after all of this we can sort this out. If my son doesn't kill me before then."

DG gave a sleepy laugh before settling into the bed. "Goodnight, my wonderful Tin Man. Would have liked it to end differently, but I understand you're a man of morals."

He laughed, and in the dark she knew he was smiling.

Because she felt it in her heart.


	9. Chapter 9

**Title:** And Guest  
**Author:**strangelittleswirl  
**Characters:** Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
**Pairing:** Cain/DG  
**Rating:** R  
**Summary:** When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
**Warning:** I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.  
**Disclaimer**: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
**Word Count:** 2,517

* * *

_The water is cool and crisp and any sense of fuzziness that had been in her mind is cleared the second she gets in. It's slightly hedonistic, she knows, to be swimming in a lake at Finaqua with nothing on, but it's a beautiful summer day, her lessons are cancelled due to the unfortunate addition of raisins to this morning's muffins, which her instructor is allergic to, and quite frankly there really isn't anything else to do. _

"_Shouldn't be out here like this and you know it," he calls._

_Pushing dark strands of hair out of her field of vision, she sees Wyatt Cain standing on the shore. She's covered to her shoulders, so she smiles sweetly up at him. "Wouldn't be so dangerous if I had a guard in here, would it?"_

_He sees her clothes spread out on a branch, and she knows that this is awkward and she's pushing him, so she dives and waits to come back up after he's gone. When she's given him enough time, she reemerges, gasping for air._

_And then she's pulled against his chest._

"_What's this," he rumbles, an arm around her waist under the water. "No clothes on the Princess?"_

"_Nothing but a smile, I'm afraid." She turns to kiss him, and finds he enthusiastically responds. His hand travels down her spine and lower, tracing its way until it wraps itself around her leg and starts to bring it about his waist. It's a strange feeling that passes over her then, like she finally realizes how empty she has been until now, and it's Wyatt who can save her and make her feel whole. _

_But he turns her around again and she's facing the castle, too far away to actually be seen, and his hands travel below the water, drawing a long high-pitched gasp out of DG. There is something deliciously bad about all of this. She feels him against her back._

She felt him against her back. Wyatt pulled her closer and groaned something before burying his head in the spot between her neck and shoulder. Holy O.Z. DG was definitely wide awake now. She stared at the cream wallpaper opposite from her.

"Wyatt?" she asked, while trying to extract herself. Served her right for finding a Tin Man whose muscles magically never atrophied after ten years of disuse. He was strong.

"Wyatt!"

He blinked, wincing at the light coming in through the window, and started to stretch. Then he froze.

"Excuse me," he muttered before dashing into the bathroom. The water turned on quickly.

DG sat up and braced herself on her elbows. Had he…was that…? For a twenty year old, sometimes she felt a little out of the loop on these things. But she was very sure of what she had dreamt of, and what she had felt. Her cheeks burned.

Not sure of what else to do, DG set about finding her sweat suit to go downstairs in for breakfast. The girl who stared back at her in the mirror was not very princess-like, nor was she appealing. Their was a bit of that crusty stuff at the insides of her eyes, her hair was a mess, and hell, she was still just as pale. After she had been able to tame the rat's nest to a certain degree, she started to tidy things up a bit.

Wyatt had forgotten to take clothing in with him. She pulled out a few things and knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" his echoed response came through the thin door.

"You forgot clothes." Her voice cracked, and she silently cursed it. "Can I come in?"

There was silence. Her roommate was weighing his options, she guessed. Then, there was the metallic noise of a shower curtain being yanked further closed. "Just leave them on the counter."

There wasn't any steam in the bathroom. At all.

Mona was waiting for DG when the couple entered the Continental breakfast area, a short while later. Today, however, Cain was keeping his hands to himself and DG could not look him in the eye.

"Hey Mo-"

"We need to talk," her friend cut her off, a sense of urgency under her words that had never been there before. Mona had always been quiet and mild-mannered. She was grasping her hand as if it was a lifeline.

"Alright. Can we do this while I eat some cereal?" Her friend bit her lip, and then nodded.

"Is it Isha, is he alright?" DG asked after successfully obtaining food for not only herself but her bodyguard. He had mentioned that he just couldn't figure out this Side's food, so she had been sort of guiding him along. On auto-pilot this morning, she had gotten him a plate of eggs and bacon and a bowl of fruit. Coffee was something he had been able to get himself, even bringing her a cup, which he pushed silently in front of her.

"I just-I mean, I probably was just imagining it all," her friend said with a nervous laugh, but then she looked like she was about to throw up when DG shook her head.

"Last night happened, Mona." DG took a sip of the coffee; it was exactly how she would have made it with lots of sugar and no cream. Looking over at his mug, she saw his appeared to be the same. They even drank their coffee the same, for chrissakes.

Her friend was even more troubled by this new development. "But that means that-and he's-Jeb is your son?" she asked, looking at Wyatt, who was in the middle of eating a forkful of egg. He nodded, and DG couldn't help but watch his throat as he swallowed. She wondered, suddenly, how he would react to her licking it. And then she wondered how he would react if she did it while straddling him right there on that chair.

"You really know to pick them, Deej," her friend muttered before picking up her tea cup. DG cleared her throat and glared.

"Well at least I waited two months to arduously attack mine. How long did you know Jeb, three minutes? You know what, we can figure all of this out after the ceremony tomorrow. Sarah is getting married, we're the bridesmaids, and we're doing a really shitty job at it. So let's just eat and continue this conversation afterwards, okay?"

"Someone needs to get laid," said Isha, appearing at Mona's shoulder suddenly. His sister sputtered apologies.

DG dropped her fork with a loud clang and leaned back in her chair, glaring at Wyatt, who was still tucking into his plate.

"What?" he asked.

DG sighed loudly and turned to study the other side of the room. "Nothing," she said breezily.

Mona was looking alarmed.

"So, Isha, did you see the swimming pool yet?" DG asked, suddenly.

"Mom said not to allow you to distract me."

DG leaned across the table towards the boy conspiratorially. "Did your mom say anything about Sarah's cousin Charlotte who thinks your cute and is waiting for you there?"

The game was thrown in Mona's lap and he was off like a rocket. Mona fixed her friend with a knowing look.

"She can handle it; her four older brothers are there, too."

"So you are really a princess? Like, tiaras and princes on white horses and castles and everything?" DG had just finished explaining everything that had happened and now her friend was going to try to process what she had been told. They were sitting on the bed. It would always be 'the bed', DG decided.

"Well the tiara part is right." And Cain was a sight to behold on his white horse. "And several castles. Yeah."

Mona was apprehensive. "Could you…I mean, if what you said was true, about the whole magic thing. Is there something you can do? Show me?" Studious, science-nerd Mona was out in full force.

DG bit her lip. "I haven't tried to do magic since I got here. I don't even know if I can."

She grabbed Wyatt's hat, ignoring his protest. DG balanced it on her finger, and closed her eyes.

It started to spin towards the ceiling. Mona waved her hand over it, standing on the bed to do so. Then she put her hand between the hat and DG's twirling finger. Mona's dark brown eyes seemed about to pop out of her head.

"You aren't making this up, are you?"

DG shook her head slowly, and then her friend flung herself across the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, DG saw Cain twitch.

"Take me back with you!" she cried. "Oh please, DG."

"Mona, what-what about your family?" DG's old Sex Pistols shirt was becoming soaked from the Indian girl's tears. "They would miss you."

This stopped the tears, temporarily. "How much do you think they truly care if they are perfectly fine seeing my married off to a stranger? Hang tradition, I am their daughter and they feel it's alright? They didn't have an arranged marriage."

DG patted her on the back. "Believe me, honey, I sympathize."

"And Isha is so caught up in his games and being mother's golden child…No, DG, you have to take me with you!"

Wyatt was not being helpful. At all. DG gave her another pat on the back before trying to steer her towards the edge of the bed and closer to the tissues. "Okay, how about this; we get through the wedding and you and I sit down and discuss this."

"Did Jeb give you this idea?" Cain asked. He had been quiet for longer than usual. Her friend shook her head.

"I haven't seen him since last night," she responded tearfully. "He never even mentioned it as a possibility."

DG helped her friend clean up, even arming her with some aspirin and icepacks for her brother when she found him nursing his wounds, and set her out the door.

"I am starting to regret ever walking out of this door since we got here in the first place. Love the company, hate the drama on the other side of the door."

She felt rather than heard him cross the floor to where she stood with her forehead against the door.

"I wanted to apologize-for this morning. That was inappropriate and immature and I should be able to handle myself better than that. It won't happen again."

"It would not have been such a problem if you weren't so set in the whole abstinence thing." What she said next was unfiltered and she liked the feeling of it on her lips. "I was going to ask if you wanted to just drive to Vegas, but then I realized you don't have any paperwork, and it's my friends big day tomorrow, and at first, I thought maybe it's just hormones, you know?"

He waited for her to continue, because he knew she would and she loved that fact. "And then I realized that this is all happening so fast; I went from thinking of you as the really good looking, gun slinging, violence prone, man I was extremely attracted to, to suddenly being-I don't know- the One all capitalized and important and what every girl dreams of."

She smiled softly at him. "And it's your job to try to rush things, anyway."

"Vegas…that was the place where people can get married in a few minutes?" he asked quietly, to which she gave him an affirmative nod even if it felt like she wanted to crawl up in a ball. "Deij, you're a-"

"A princess, I know," she said with a sigh. "But I just-Promise me this is not going to just disappear the second we get back home? If you want it, that is. I guess I'm making a pretty big leap here in assuming you want-"

"More than anything," he whispered into her ear, and she turned and found herself in his arms. "I want to-Deijhi, if I didn't think I would get shot at, I'd race back to your mother and Ahamo and ask them there on the spot for permission to court you."

"You will have to talk to Jeb first. We will have to talk to Jeb first. I mean, he's your son. And there really aren't that many years between us, it's bound to be awkward. But then again, I get this feeling he might be preoccupied with a certain new Slipper, so maybe it won't be so bad, Especially when she's totally rooting for me."

He kissed the top of her hair and laughed. "You pick up strays so easily, darlin'" DG enjoyed the way he said it.

"I like my strays," the short woman said defensively into his chest. "I am an excellent judge of character."

The rehearsal at the church was going to be reached by bus. DG had about fifteen minutes before she needed to be ready. There would not have been such a time constraint if it weren't for her bumping into Isha before Mona found him. She had gotten a frantic phone call half an hour ago.

He was actually fine. And blissfully happy. Confused, DG looked from the kid over towards the pool, where Charlotte was giving Isha a coy little wave. Cain cleared his throat and clamped a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Alright, lover-boy, let's get you back to your sister who is worried sick."

Mona was relieved to find him, but seeing the curlers in her hair caused DG to grab Cain's arm, look at the time, and give a small whine before sprinting back to her room. She knew Cain would keep up easily, and he did, arriving, somehow, before her with the key.

"I'm holing myself up in the bathroom and you're just going to have to get pretty out here," she declared before running into the small room with clothing in her hands.

The dress still fit her, which was nice to know. Perhaps it was a little outdated, but the blue color of the dress looked good on her. The heels were low enough that they weren't going to make tomorrow torture, and all that was left was her hair.

Her hair. That straw-like, frizzy stuff that stuck out in every direction possible. Right.

DG took a deep breath and closed her eyes, passing her hand quickly over the top of her head. It was a funny feeling when your hair started doing itself up. It took only a few seconds. Sometimes, this whole super special stuff was amazing.

But then there was the zipper on her dress, and no matter how she ducked and twisted, there was no reaching it.

With an exasperated groan, DG cracked the door open. "Wyatt? Could you help me?"

The tall man slipped into the room, finding her already turned around with her hair off of her neck.

"Could you zip me up, please?"

It would turn out to be a very bad choice. Not because of any damage done, but because DG was quickly learning that Wyatt Cain was the world's largest tease. Either Side.


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** And Guest  
**Author**: strangelittleswirl  
**Characters**: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents  
**Pairing:** Cain/DG  
**Rating:** R  
**Summary**: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.  
**Warning:** I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.  
**Disclaimer:** It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.  
**Word Count:** 2,824

* * *

"I swear to God, his mother is going to be _dead_by tomorrow, and I'll make sure I do it wearing a pair of gloves, and then there won't be any in-law problems for me. If she does not stop yapping about her wedding and how much bigger it was and how her son from her first marriage had one that was _better_…" 

DG was sitting on the counter of the bathroom, helping Sarah reapply mascara after The First Meltdown. Carly was on the cell phone in the corner and Mona had taken to following DG like a puppy-or, rather, her old tutor.

"You don't mean that. Besides, you won't be able to complain about anything. And the honeymoon-age, during conjugal visits? Probably not romantic. And you can stop straining your eyes, now. No one will know that we nearly had a re-enactment of Alice in Wonderland in here." DG capped the mascara and hopped off of the counter, checking for any sort of wet spots from the metal surface.

Sarah seemed to twitter, for a moment, hovering between walking out the door and saying something.

"What?" asked DG, tonelessly.

"I was always jealous of you, in high school," said Sarah, sheepishly. "I mean, you always kept your cool and you were so _funny_. It was like always hanging out with a real-life Daria."

"Kept her cool? You should have seen what I walked in on," snorted Mona, and all three women turned, though one was blushing.

"Well, sorry for ruining your chances of scoring with some random guy, Mona," DG said, pointedly. But her friend was not going to be quiet.

"If I had known it was your boyfriend's son-"

"What?" Sarah exploded. "Just what exactly is Mona talking about, DG?"

She sighed, glaring at Mona. "Wyatt and I didn't know that his son would be here. He's been sort of traveling recently and it was a mere coincidence that he was here at the same time. Well, Mona's lips mysteriously found themselves attached to Jeb's lips and um-But it's getting worked out. So it's fine." She tried to shrug it off.

"You mean he was married? Is he still married? Don't tell me your taking a page from Carly over there." Sarah gestured with a French-manicured thumb over at the other bridesmaid, who was all but leaning out the window for a signal.

"Hey, the divorce is about to be finalized!" cried their red-haired friend, indignantly. Sarah shook her head.

DG rolled her eyes. "He's a widower, Sarah. Now let's stop talking about this and get through this rehearsal so you and Carly can get piss drunk, and Mona and I can hold your heads out of the toilets."

* * *

"Are we going to be discussing this at some point, or are you blowing this off?" asked Mona as they did exactly what DG predicted. The rehearsal dinner was going all fine and dandy, save for the fact that well, neither Sarah nor Carly could handle themselves well. They must have lost their Green Zone cards at some point.

"We will, but right now I'm braiding my best friend's hair like we're in second grade," responded DG. Sprawled unlady-like on the floor, with one hand on Carly's back and another holding a handful of hair, DG had lots of time to think. Speaking of: what would her mothers think, seeing her this way? Either one of them.

"'sevil, the shots" muttered Sarah on the other side, and she saw a strappy sandal twitch. Mona, in her sweet, innocent voice, was soothing her with nonsense. Carly, on the other hand, was getting her hair slowly but surely ripped out. They were bitchy friends.

"But is this because of Jeb, Mona? He's a really important guy in the-back home, and it's not exactly the safest place to be. I would worry about you."

"Well why wouldn't I be with you? Simple logic works out, actually: Mr. Cain is wherever you are, and if I insist on being where you are, and Jeb is relatively close to where his father is, then Jeb is relatively close to me. But that's not why and you know it."

DG bit her lip and gave Carly another pat on the back. From the noises both were making it seemed like they were almost finished. Then Sarah could go back to her room and sleep it off and they could ignore that any of it had happened.

And she could get back to Wyatt. And not doing things.

Mona tried to make light conversation. "I heard Old Gulch is now the town judge. He always liked you, maybe he can get his son to lay off."

"Taken care of, and Wyatt refuses to let me bring my bike back. First off, it probably wouldn't arrive in one piece, and second, he says it's a moving death trap on two wheels-although pretty. I added that last part on."

Quiet, save for a few moans echoing out of toilets.

"And you listened?"

DG studied the graffiti on the bottom of the stall door. She already was having a good time, so she really did not have to call. "Well, yeah. He had a point."

Mona risked at least a dozen known diseases and two more unnamed ones to lean her head under the partition and look up at DG. "But you never listened. Even when we told you that no, cars don't drive on two wheels easily, you did it anyway. And in Gulch's car that you'd stolen!"

DG didn't answer, but remembered the cast on her leg and the itching, and Gulch's hatred of her for the rest of her life, until now. And that had been when she was twelve.

Mona was still watching her. "I could say something about you and your feelings for him, but you would sort of whine, and _they_might start crying."

"And he's outside the door."

"That, too. So I won't." Mona's head disappeared, but wagged a finger at DG. "But you know what I'm thinking."

Mr. Barneby shuffled in under the watchful eyes of Cain and scooped Carly up, and then Sarah's quarterback brother helped her along the way. All the was left was Mona, DG, and Wyatt, who leaned against the swinging door and crossed his arms, silently watching their friends be taken to their rooms.

"When not around a bar, they are usually very smart," Mona said to Wyatt, and DG was surprised. The girl usually never addressed anyone of the opposite sex directly, for multiple reasons. He raised his eyebrows and nodded, taking it in stride.

Mona kicked her purse in front of her as they walked, watching it swing on its long strap. "This has been a lot of fun so far. It's a nice wedding."

"Sarah's going to look beautiful tomorrow," said DG carefully. Mona only made small talk when there was something a whole lot bigger she wanted to address.

"My mom told me, right before we left, that my fiancé is going to be flying in on a plane next week. Starting all the preparations, I guess."

DG couldn't walk any further, and grabbed onto Wyatt. "What?"

Mona picked at some peeling wallpaper. "Yeah. Sarah's not the only bride, I guess."

"Fine. It's settled; you're coming with us. No, Wyatt, don't. Mona is one of my best friends and I can't let this happen." DG felt it then, so she settled her shoulders. "Mona is going to return with us; it's settled." Both of her friends stared. DG wiped at her mouth. "Something on my face?"

"No. Not at all; you're just…"

"You were a princess there for a second. It was sort of strange." Mona looked impressed, but then realized what her friend had said. "Oh, thank you, DG!"

"Now we have a wedding to get through, so let's all get a good night of sleep and go from there? Princess," Wyatt said quietly, because they were just outside Mona's door, and he was ushering her back towards their room. Their room. Hah. It wasn't their room. It was a room of Wyatt Cain-shaped torture for O.Z. princesses named Deijhi.

"Zipper please, and no kissing the back of my neck this time," warned DG as they entered . She got one anyway; it was warm and electric and she couldn't help but shutter at the feeling of it combined with the sudden air hitting the her back. He chuckled into her skin. _Chuckled_.

"This is a nice little bossy streak you have going, darlin'."

She wrapped an arm around the base of his neck, and turned enough to kiss him. Which she did, with gusto. "And I'm sure you love it. You may be the one in the uniform, but I wear the pants."

"I love those pants," he said before letting her go, probably because she was doing more wriggling against him than necessary. "Never really saw a woman so pretty in pants before. Or one who does _that_so much."

"So I take it you don't see girls in pants a lot?"

He was checking the windows again, and the locks, and then he made sure the door was locked and nodded. "Did you not notice that? Part of why you stuck out so much on your first days was because of that. Women don't wear pants."

"So I looked like a skank?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. That would explain the gratuitous ogling she had received on her first few days in the O.Z., well the pants and the glowing palm. She started to peel off hers shoes.

"Never."

Wyatt was trying to unbutton his shirt sleeves, but having a problem with the small buttons. DG tried to bite the inside of her cheek from smirking when she went over to help him with it. He seemed to notice.

"Only women have those stupid little things. We had large tin ones on our formal uniforms."

DG was a very good girl. She did not just rip open his shirt. She stepped back when the sleeves flapped loose. "You're free."

"Much obliged."

She went about preparing things for bed, and was even able to pull her large night shirt over her dress, put her pajamas on under it, and then slip it off. The guard did a double take when he noticed she'd changed so quickly.

"More coverage than last night?" she asked, feeling herself blush under his gaze for some strange reason. With a quick wave of her hand, the clothing for tomorrow, for both of them, was set out, neat and folded. Except for one of her shoes, but really, it was a hell of a lot better than she had expected.

"Nice trick-and yes. Not that I didn't mind."

She rolled her eyes before slipping under the covers, marveling at how quickly their little domestic situation had become so cozy.

He turned off the lights, and she knew that he looked down to see if she was still awake when he did so. DG tried to keep herself still as he did it. But then a pair of lips were pressed to the corner of her lip, and she had to follow them and attempt to align them properly. She whined when he pulled back with a small laugh.

"You have a lot to learn."

"Was just trying to make it less weird. Getting ready to sleep with me here must be pretty strange."

Oh, those blue eyes. Even now more than ever, she wanted to loose herself in them. "I can't really complain."

He padded around to his side of the bed, and DG tried to steal a peak at his feet, just out of her sight. A desire for these little things, those that were usually overlooked

She tried to sleep. But again, these little thoughts dragged at her too much.

"Wyatt," she asked. His back brushed against hers and she knew he was twisting to look in her direction. He grunted in response.

"Tell me about your family, about when you were a kid."

Turning to rest her chin on his head was as natural as breathing. He sighed and she liked how her head dipped with the movement. The cloth of the shirt he wore was well worn and soft.

"Well, I grew up in Central City, real city boy." DG propped herself up on one arm, and gave him a disbelieving look. Even in the dark he made a little noise like a scoff. "I did. Emerald District. When we go back I can even take you to the old family place there. It's not a castle or anything but-"

"I'd really like that."

Cain let his head fall back with a heavy sound. "I don't even think Jeb's been there, come to think of it. I guess that's something else to add to my list of Things I've Failed at As a Parent."

"Hey," she said firmly, poking him. "You're not going to get anywhere with him if this is how you act. Absent fathers are on TV are always received badly when they do that."

"And the little box speaks the truth?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. But Jeb is probably dealing with a lot of heavy stuff right now, just like you. I mean, don't forget that for all of those annuals, he thought he was an orphan, that he didn't have anything. He's in the same spot you are." The shirt was smooth against her face as she shook it into the material. "That came out horrifically, please forgive me."

"It was the truth." A car drove by, and it must have rained, because it made a slick swish on the road.

"So, back to Emerald District. Lived there until I was about twelve or so, and then my mother got sick. My father was convinced it was something in the air in the city, so after she died…spent the next six annuals out in the country; he went from being one of the best musicians in Central City to a ranch owner. Remember that white horse?"

"Do I ever," sighed DG. He ignored that.

"That was one from the old farm, we bred these beautiful horses, just about the finest ones in the O.Z.. The royal family would have them painted all sorts of colors. Your first birthday," he said as if it had just dawned on him. "For your first birthday they were painted blue, to match your eyes. Your father came out there, himself, to see them. I was sixteen and nothing like I am now."

DG tried to picture him as gawky or dramatically different, and failed. Instead she envisioned him a little younger, shirtless, and leaning on some fence post on a prairie. For the sake of keeping things calm and him in the bed, she squashed it and listened. This was calming and it made her feel as though sleep was around the corner.

"Going back was big deal for my dad. He felt like he had failed."

"How come?"

"It was his father's farm, and people don't need pianos or violins or guitars in the country. He did what he had to, and I tried to be as little trouble as possible. He liked it, once he'd gotten back, but it wasn't the City."

He settled back as if finished, but DG wasn't asleep yet.

"That was your dad, but what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

She sat up now, fully awake. "What about the places you played in as a kid, the first girl you kissed? When did that miserable feeling of being an adult start? I want to know these things. I want to know everything I can about you. Because knowing some of the little things isn't enough; they're a start, but they're not everything."

"That would take a lifetime, Deijhi, I can't condense it. That's years of information."

"Then let's start. Let's start right now. Here's something: I can't eat mushrooms. The whole texture thing skeeves me out."

"'Skeeves'?"

"It's all squishy and everything. Now, it's your turn."

He was silent for a moment, and she could hear him open his mouth and such in air before starting. "I became a Tin Man to anger my father. How's that?" He let out a small laugh. "I have _never_told that to anyone else."

She kissed him, because she remembered from that stupid course on psychology she had taken that positively reinforcing behavior you want leads to more of it. Of course, Cain wasn't the rat in that stupid computer game project she had to do, but it was the idea.

"Get some sleep," he said gruffly, pulling her head down onto his chest where it fit as if it belonged there. "I know you girls and your beauty sleep."

DG could have argued with him, but she was too content to really even bother. Sleep was quick in coming.


	11. Chapter 11

**Title: And Guest**

**Author:** strangelittleswirl

**Characters: **Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents

**Pairing:** Cain/DG

**Rating:** R

**Summary:** When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.

**Warning:** I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.

**Disclaimer:** It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.

**Word Count**: 2,072

There was that hand on her hip, again, so warm and wonderful, and the breath on her back and that kiss. Right. There. DG could get used to this.

"You alright?" he whispered into her ear, making the small movement necessary to stand in front of her.

She didn't meet his eyes, just fiddled with his tie again, making sure the icy blue scrap of fabric was straight and secure. Tonight she would loosen it and take it off for him, she had decided. Or maybe she would watch him just do that. And since when did ties become a turn on?

Most of their things had been packed back up, so that the next morning would be quick. Mona was going to take their items back in her car, which would give her an excuse to drop her things off at Henry and Emily's. Then she would return home and leave the note, and Jeb would walk her to their house.

DG wrapped her arms around Wyatt's torso, resting her head gently over his heart to listen to it. The blonde man brought an arm around her back carefully.

"Just checking up on what's mine," she said with a smile into the fabric of his shirt. "I'm going to miss this."

"Me too," he answered in earnest. "Explaining all of this in a way that doesn't end up in trouble will take some time."

She perched her chin on his chest so she could look up at him, frowning. "I've never been very good at that, waiting. I was going to leave Kansas because I was tired of waiting, didn't think about going away to college because of the money and then having to wait to start my life, and now…now this is going to be shorter, in some ways, but it feels like forever before we will be able to have this."

"DG, I just want you to know, if you reconsider-" she stopped him with a quick kiss, more light pressure on his lips with her own than a kiss, really.

"Stubborn, remember? It's one of those ineffable traits of mine you like."

And then Wyatt Cain gave her a small pat on a part of her she never thought he would and turned her towards the door, much to her protest. "Come on, we're going to be late for your friend's wedding."

"What do I look like, one of your horses?"

"I can't find Sarah!" cried Carly, and DG looked up from fiddling with Mona's bouquet. Sarah's spinster aunt, the one that came with the stereotypical cats and romance novels, owned a small flower shop and had done anything remotely floral for the wedding that she could. The bouquets were shoddy, and DG wondered if Lifetime had had on one of those Daniel Steele movies on again when she made them.

Mona and DG stared at their friend, confused. "Is it really that hard to loose someone in a giant white dress?" asked Mona, echoing DG's thoughts exactly. Carly's hair was already starting to curl and free itself from the French twist on the back of her head, giving her a more manic look. DG set the flowers down and waved for Wyatt to come over.

"Everything alright? Are you okay?" he asked before he was close enough for her to whisper to him.

"Well, we have a bit of a problem."

"Look for something large, white, and crying?" he asked monotonously, to which she nodded vehemently.

The group frantically searched the grounds of the hotel, which weren't that large. It only took a few seconds to find her, wilting on the back of the property.

"I can't do this!" cried Sarah into DG's shoulder. Other hotel goers were trying to get to the pool, but the blonde in the big dress and her friend who looked like she was having a horrible time at comforting her were blocking the way. The princess patted her, inelegantly. "What if I'm making a mistake?"

"You're not making a mistake, Sarah, you love him," came Mona, matter-of-factly. Since she'd found out she was getting the hell out of Kansas, she's gotten quite bold. She had even made a joke at Carly's expense. Carly was holding the train, and watching on, intently.

"But I only _think _I do," she said, and a boy without swim trunks ran around the smoker's gazebo they were in to get to the pool, followed closely by his mother. "What if it's all wrong, what if I just think he's it because he was the first?"

"Well, you should have thought about that earlier at some other point-Oh wait, you did!" DG said with feigned surprise. "I happen to remember quite a few conversations on my part, trying to argue you out of dating him. But you kept on, and here you are. You love him, Sarah. I see how you look at kids and babies, and how you look at him after."

"It's kinda gooey to the point of sickening, actually," commented Carly. They ignored her.

DG glanced over at Wyatt, heart speeding up at the sight of him. He had on tan slacks, and she'd been able to hunt down a tie that matched his eyes. With the black dress shirt on it stood out. And the tie looked very yankable. She got an idea.

"Sarah, let me ask you something? If you only had one day, no, one morning, what would you do if you could do anything in the world?"

Sarah turned to her friend, pouting as she thought about it. "I'd stay in bed with Mike, I guess."

"Where?"

Her face softened, and she blushed. "In our bed, with our children, too, if we've had them at this hypothetical point. Just spent it in our bed in our home with our kids."

And then DG knew it. As she watched the look dawn on her friend's face, she knew that it was true for her. Because the night before, she had had such a dream, and she had to slip out of the bed and go into the bathroom. She had turned on the shower so that he wouldn't hear her sob. And DG hadn't been sure why she had been crying, but it had been so _beautiful _in a way that made her chest hurt that she had needed to do something.

Deijhi, Princess of the Outer Zone was completely and undeniable in love with Wyatt Cain.

And just like that the world shifted a little, parts were slid around, and then they settled back into place, just a little differently but completely new, and Deijhi took a deep breath.

"You love him, Sarah. You love him and you are going to walk in there and marry him, because you can't wait to spend another day with him by your side. And screw anyone who says that you shouldn't, or can't, because it's your life, and damn it, if he's your home, then he's your home and you deserve that."

Sarah was about to cry again, but the smile on her face told her they were not the tears from before. "Okay," she said, meekly, but then she smiled. "Let's go in there, because I'm," and her voice broke a little, "I'm marrying Mike. My Michael. I am going to go get married to Michael."

DG gave her a sisterly kiss on the cheek, made sure she didn't leave a mark on her freckled cheek, and lowered the veil. "No sidetracking this time," she said seriously. And her friend nodded.

The wedding was beautiful, and the girls found themselves teary-eyed by the end of it. This was the beginning of DG and Mona's goodbye to their friends, at least for a while. DG took a steadying breath as she walked past Wyatt's pew, grasping lightly at his shoulder as she passed, just to feel that connection a little more than she already did.

The reception was loud and raucous and went on for a long time, with everyone giving more and more interesting toasts as the night went on, and DG savored every slow dance she could in Wyatt's arms, save for one playful attempt at a tango with Sarah's older brother, who once had pulled the fire alarm in the police station, with gloves and a hood on, to get her out of one of her infractions. That had been a few years ago, if she remembered. She hugged Brian at the end of it and returned bright cheeked and laughing to Wyatt's side.

Jeb had snuck in, muttering an apology for his behavior the day before. Mona was delighted to see him, and giddily told him the good news. The relief the boy felt was obvious, and DG cast a glance over at Wyatt's face to make sure he had seen it as well. He had.

DG knew it was only brought on by being at a wedding, sort of like when a friend has a baby, but some ideas started to form in her head, silly things. Like the idea that if things really did work out, then the girl she'd always mothered could potentially end up as her daughter-in-law. It was ridiculous, but a possibility.

Jeb got the garter after Carly had gotten the bouquet. It was a few, uncomfortable minutes that passed before he got it in place.

And then, at the end of the night, exhausted, DG and the group made their goodbyes. It felt strange, being able to do it this time. She said everything she could to those she needed to, left other things unsaid, and even called Mr. Barneby "Richard".

"You'll have to write to me, and tell me how you get on with Wyatt's son," said Carly, quietly. "So that I know what to expect with Richard's."

Not quite sure how to answer, DG simply embraced her friend. "I'm sorry for the hell I put you through," she said, and meant it. Carly laughed.

"I wasn't much better. What with all the sneaking out and you covering for me, and the whole not telling anyone about us. And everything else you've done." Carly pulled back and looked Wyatt squarely in the eye.

"You better take care of our DG, Mr. Cain. DG's an amazing girl."

"I keep telling her she deserves better."

Carly cocked her head to the side, and truly _looked _at him for the first time. "No, no I think you're it for her. I mean, maybe I think you have a candy ass and all that, but you're good to her. I've never seen her so peaceful in her life as when she's with you." DG felt the beginning of tears in her eyes. Carly thrust a hand out towards the Tin Man, who slowly put his own out and shook it.

"Thank you, m'am."

"It's Carly for now. But maybe," she looked over her shoulder at Richard, and shrugged. "Maybe it will be m'am in the future. Weddings on the mind and all."

DG knew exactly what she was talking about.

Wyatt wouldn't hear of her walking back to the room as bone-tired as she was, so she only put up a small fight when an arm made contact with the back of her knees and she buckled right into the perfect shape he needed to pick her up. The skirt poofed out ridiculously, but he kept things covered that should be, and Deijhi closed her eyes, kissing his neck lightly and simply trusting.

Jeb carried in his arms little Isha, who had fallen asleep quickly after the ceremony, with Mona at his side. DG gave a lazy wave and kicked her feet out. "Bed, Watcher-Mine." Yeah, half-awake she made inane Buffy references, but DG had always found Giles sort of attractive for an older guy, even if he was in an entirely different league than Wyatt.

DG had a full length slip on underneath, and that's what she slept in, somehow getting the dress off and rolling under the covers, but could only sleep once Wyatt was taking up the space of the other side. As she flung an arm over his chest and settled in, she wondered how she would make it without him back at home. Pillows weren't as comfortable as his warm body next to hers.

And then, half awake and unintentionally, she muttered into his shoulder "Love you" before slipping into sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Title: And Guest**

**Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents**

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: R**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 2,972**

* * *

"You're staring at me," she mumbled into the pillow, finding that it smelled like Wyatt, but that her voice's morning grogginess caused some high pitched noises to come out that were probably making dogs cry in the area. But hey, she'd take it if it meant waking up to finding Wyatt Cain staring at her, his head resting in the hand of a bent arm, a lazy, morning smile on his face. In that nice, charcoal shirt, his biceps looked lickable.

She would add that item to her list for later.

"You're real cute when you sleep," he said, and she could tell he hadn't been awake for much longer than her. "There's this little whiny noise you make right before you try to get closer to me. And your eyes-right now, I've never seen them so _blue_."

She had been lying on her stomach-hence the mouthful of pillow in only the actual sense-so she twisted to face him, mirroring his arm movements; one propping her head up, the other slowly creeping across the mattress to reach hers.

"What brought this on?" she asked, not being able to help herself. Wyatt had only started to speak in full sentences just recently, and she sort of liked it. He traced a vein on the back of her pale hand with a tanned, calloused finger.

He was watching the path of his finger, trailing along a finger that seemed like a very intentional choice on his part. It was close to the pinky, on her left hand, and the idea of what he might be thinking gave her chills.

"You said something, right before you passed out and started to snore."

"You're a liar, Wyatt Cain," she said to cover her nervousness, and the quick drying of her throat, and how brittle she suddenly felt. There was no use for sheets; she was naked before him in the rawest of ways she had ever known.

"Only about the second part," he said carefully. He pushed the strap of her slip back up with a calculated movement that continued its sweep to her neck and down past the hollow of her throat, just teasingly close to continuing farther down. Even with panic clawing at her insides, DG noted that he was, probably, a boob man. This concerned her. Perhaps there was a Pam Anderson-like spell that Az knew about. Hell, Az had big ones, so maybe there was a boob fairy that just hadn't had the chance to visit DG-

"And I have to say that I-" he was growing hoarse, and she intently watched his adam's apple move almost imperceptibly as he swallowed. "My feelings-would be, that is-the same. As yours. But for you."

She let out a long sigh of relief, letting her head fall into the pillow. But then a firm hand was seeking her chin, and her mouth was brought up to be graced with a kiss she felt all the way down to her toes.

He hadn't really said it. Actually. So she pulled back, and Wyatt waited, concerned.

"Say it, Wyatt Cain. Say that you love me. And none of that 'Well, you know I do and I basically did' Munchkin dung tha-"

"I love you."

The sheets were crisp and white and the morning light made its way through their window, lazily. On the other side of the hotel, Sarah was waking up, for the first time, in her husband's arms, rings probably casting little lights of reflection on the wall. She could only hope that she was as happy as she was in that moment.

But then DG was too busy to think of anything else but the man in her bed, and secretly wishing that yesterday had been _their_wedding, because this was starting to kill her and she finally realized what sexual frustration meant.

"I don't have a lot to offer you," he said, suddenly, in a voice that inferred he was on the edge of tears, which caused her to follow him to that point as well. Because he was so much to her, and he did not realize how wrong he was, and that was another reason why she loved him.

"You'll never realize how wrong you are about that," she said with a shaky laugh. "You've given me an anchor. And a home. _And you gave me your heart_." It was hard, to get out what she felt in that last sentence, she had to whisper it, and it only brought a new bought of tears on. "Yours," she managed. "'M all yours."

And then he sighed, brought her to rest against his chest, and kissed her hand. Checkout was twelve. They stayed that way until eleven thirty.

Mona followed them down the dirt path to the farmhouse in her sleek, beautiful car. Isha barely looked up when they said goodbye to him. She gave them a large smile, all teeth and crinkles at the corners of her eyes before she got back into her car. It was the first time outside of a sleepover years earlier that she had done that, and DG saw how Jeb found her so beautiful, inside and out.

It sort of funny, bringing up the Travel Storm this time, watching how Mona stared at it and then her when they said it was time to jump. DG could just make out Jeb's loud instructions to hold on, and then Wyatt was kissing her and it dawned on her that they were _on her roof, for Dorothy's sake_, about to jump into the tornado circling next to them as if it had been there all of its magical life, and would do no harm to her house. She vaguely made a point to always use crash-proof luggage, as she had this time. And then the bottom of her stomach was dropping out, and at least she'd die in Wyatt's arms, and oh God oh God, save her-

They rolled to a landing, and she could make out, now that the ringing in her ears was gone, the sound of Mona screaming franticly in small little shrieks a few yards away. With a groan she picked herself up, soothing her Tin Man's worries over injury.

The group was standing in part of the open plain that made up the outskirts of Central City. Jeb had finally gotten Mona to stop screaming, as well as flailing her arms. She noted that both she and her friend were wearing pants.

"Mona, welcome to the Slipper Club." Her friend looked a bit pale, which was pretty hard with her pretty dark skin.

"Is that like a free shoe club thing? My mother always said they were pyramid schemes." The girl sounded meek and shook, but, after all, she had just traveled to a technically non-existant place in tornado. That her friend had made.

"It's what we call people who have slipped from one world to the next. Jeb, keep an arm around her. She might be a little weak-kneed after that," suggested Cain, placing his hat on and bringing his shiny guard badge out of its place tucked into his shirt. He grabbed his own duffel and Deijhi's valise and pointed looked at his son and then Mona's things, which weren't much at all. He quickly got the point.

The detail of guards preplanned for were waiting for them, but they eyed the two other's wearily. Mona's lips were set in a frozen, thin straight line.

"Gentlemen, you already know Jebediah Cain, Mr. Cain's son, as some of you were under his leadership in the Resistance. May I introduce Mona Pattel, a Slipper from the other Side who is here with my blessing and protection." DG felt pretty confidant as she said that. Even Wyatt looked impressed.

Mona was visibly impressed by what they passed in the truck. It was easier to use truck, much like Demilo's, to smuggle DG in and out of the city. From the corner near the door, where Wyatt sat with his pistol cocked and ready at the first sign of trouble, he cast a meaningful glance in her direction before looking at the standard bed she now sat. Both found themselves looking out curtained windows, though DG felt herself blush. Bold man, she'd have to find a way to torture him for that.

"So this is…where your family lives? They rule this city?" asked Mona, curiously. DG was finding this all entirely uncomfortable. The first time they had ever gone over to Mona's house to work on a group project, she and Carly had declared her filthy rich. There positions were reversed.

"The royal family is staying in Central City until their other homes are renovated and refurbished," answered Cain. "This is only a fraction of the O.Z."

Waiting for the truck, as they slipped into the converted old stables, were two people that DG was only too happy to see.

"Guys!" They pulled her into a hug, and she heard a certain tall, blonde, and trigger-happy mutter something about doing that too much for their own health. A well aimed, furry leg kicked out and the Tin Man stumbled.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, excitedly, of her friend. Glitch was sporting a sort of gauze Mohawk, with his strange curls more tamed and peeking out from under the covering. He gave her a small, timid smile.

"Better, thank you for asking. Sort of strange," he said, placidly, before looking surprised and hugging DG again. "DG! When did you get here?"

"Glitch still funny," said Raw, apologetically.

DG made quick introductions and found out from a guard that her mother was expecting her presently, in her chambers. He was a little confused when she ordered him to find Mona lodgings near her room, preferably adjacent ones, but took them nonetheless, ushering Jeb, Mona, and her two friends towards the main entrance.

Which left Cain to take her hand and start to lead her down a small walkway and through a door she had missed, covered in ivy. He shut it quickly, and then DG found that her back was becoming very intimate with it, though the front of her was a little too busy to take heed.

"Not that I mind terribly, but what was that before?" she asked, once her lips weren't occupied and she could breathe again.

He was too busy leaning over her, one hand on the door, above her shoulder. "Just wanted to get this permanently in my memory, at least for the while it is before I see you in anything else."

"Or nothing at all," she offered, helpfully, which he ignored.

"My Deijhi in men's trousers and no crown and no guards nearby, keeping me from doing things like this."

Oh, she liked that, that thing he did with his tongue, and his teeth, tugging at her lower lip.

But it was over too soon and they were making their way though an older part of the castle that she hadn't been in much, since returning.

"Your mother moved everything to the other wings, after you were gone. It wasn't that much time before the Witch started take over after that," he explained, but try as she might, it was very hard to see her sister, just in her teens and possibly slightly pimply, plotting away in a cave in those ridiculous clothes.

And then they passed the old throne room, and DG let go of his hand, wandering in without noticing she was until she stood on a tile that seemed to be where she needed to stand.

The marble floor was a pretty green, very much like the marble in the musuleum, but worn smooth by use. Tall, stone pillars of a creamy color shot upward to a dizzyingly tall ceiling, and in the light she could make out veins of gold in them. In front of her was a dias, and enough room for four thrones. They had gold velvet brocade, she remembered, absently, and she had bounced in that seat as they passed…

_The Tin Men presented themselves to the royal family, as they always had, but little Deijhi felt something different about this year's exhibition. Her insides felt wound up and tight as that toy her father called a 'yoh-yoh'._

_The rows passed, each one bowing to the family, but then there was a feeling at the base of Deijhi's spine and she flew out of her chair, tripped down the stairs, and promptly attached herself to one of the young Tin Men._

"_You're my Tin Man," she said, small, young voice clearly echoing through the room. Amused laughter spread through the courtiers, and even stuffy, skinny Ambrose stifled a laugh. The Tin Man seemed confused as to how he should react. She tugged on his arm, until he kneeled before her tiny body, swaying and humming to herself._

_She kissed him on the cheek, and recoiled. There had been a feeling like touching the door handle after slipping across plush carpeting in stockings._

"_Yes, Deijhi, he is your Tin Man," said her mother, in amused tones. "My darling, let him be for now."_

_The Tin Man looked up at the Queen, who nodded, and he rose, retreating a step. Deijhi, shame still fairly unknown to her, made her way up the stairs and to her mother's side._

_But she watched the young Tin Man, finding him and his forget-me-not eyes over and over again in the ranks._

"Oh my God," DG said, suddenly, becoming aware of where she stood. Cain looked down at her, as if he had been expecting this. "This is where we met. This very spot. I-I kissed you and I called you my-"

"Your Tin Man," he finished for her, a strangeness to his voice. "I thought it was some strange fluke, a little spark of your magic that day. But it wasn't. I had a ring on my finger and all I could think of that night was a little girl's kiss on my cheek on my cot, before falling asleep. Not the best thing, I can tell you."

Test or not, DG knew it, damn it. This wasn't some sort of strange fluke. This was supposed to happen.

She wanted to kiss him, but just as she started to close the inch between them, just as she was about to take his hand, one of the tall doors swung open and a secretary with a ridiculous wig shuffled over and bowed before ushering them towards her mother's room.

DG replayed the memory over and over as she walked, remembering her mother's satisfied smile and her words.

"…_let him be for now."_

For now.

"Mother!," the princess growled, and quickly took the lead, pumping her legs with a new energy.

"You knew!" she cried accusingly upon pushing the doors to her mother's office open. It was rather dramatic, but in hindsight, she wished she hadn't. Her mother's eyes flashed annoyance for only a second before the mask of grace replaced it. With a cool, serene smile, as if her daughter, covered in dirt, wearing trousers, declaring things loudly was a daily occurrence. "Ambassador Finleigh, may I present my daughter, Deijhi, Crowned Princess of the Realm of the Outer Zone and Heir Apparent; and Head of the Royal Guard, Mr. Wyatt Cain. Now, as you can see, they have just arrived from a trip to the Other Side, so I am sure they both are greatly looking forward to retiring to their rooms for the time being, and if it will not be too much trouble, Ambassador, we should excuse them."

Her mother turned expectantly to the man, in his impressive suite with bits of plaid here and there. He sputtered, agreeably.

Wyatt and Deijhi bowed and curtseyed, respectively, again, and while Wyatt backed out of the room, DG turned and got out of there was quickly as she could. Something was wrong. Very wrong. DG bit her lip and tried to figure something out.

"Mr. Cain, did you not say there was that item you wanted me to look over in your office?" she asked vaguely. Wyatt stared for a second, before he realized what she was doing.

"Oh yes, that…plan…for the ball. You know what, Shepard, thank you, but we will not be heading to our rooms right now."

And then he was guiding her quickly through the halls to his office, and it was almost a full out run in the end.

"Cain," she said as he closed his door and she sat on the edge of his desk, as she always did. He did not answer as he closed his window and seemed to check every corner. "Wyatt, please tell me what's going on."

When he felt they were safe, he came to stand directly in front of her, putting hands on her shoulders in a manner that she knew meant he was about to say something that would upset her.

"Deijhi, don't jump to conclusions, alright?" But his hands were shaking and he looked as if it was only steely resolve that was keeping him calm.

"Tell me." Her voice quaked.

"Your mother had a piece of paper on her desk," he started. "And I could be wrong, but it looked like a marriage contract."

And then DG looked past his shoulder for a second, eyes watering as what he said settled on her shoulders. She turned to him. "No." And then all she could was repeat that one word, over and over as Wyatt clung to her as much as she clung to him.

It was a long time before her tears subsided, and she let go of Wyatt, her Tin Man.


	13. Chapter 13

**Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents**

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: R**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 2,334**

* * *

"Just a second," DG requested, weakly. "For a moment, I thought you said there was a marriage contract on my mother's desk. As in, a paper binding somebody into a marriage. I realize this must be because of some residual dizziness from the storm."

"I did," he sighed, tiredly, but then he looked as if he recalled something. "We just have to take the Test. Tested couples are not subject to arranged marriages with anyone but their Intended. I just-we just have to find out where they're still giving them, set one up maybe." He was pacing, and she knew that he wished their were Longcoats to go arrest, or Witches to vanquish, something to get his mind off of all of this. She wished for a bed, personally, but that was going to have to wait for a future that they might now not have.

"So this is simple, right? We just take the Test, and get back the results, and presto, no more marriage contract?"

"Yes," Wyatt responded, with new vigor. "It's going to all be alright; everything will be fine."

"Tests are no longer given, Darling," said her mother as they sat at breakfast the next morning. The long wood table separated them, but DG felt there would probably be enough room for her to throw herself on it and kick and scream. She looked askance, finding Cain in the corner, and his face was a perfect mask. How the hell did he do that?

"I-that is, the Witch destroyed the facility where we kept the records of Tests," said Azkadellia, meekly, as she pushed food around her plate. She'd stopped eating recently, and was getting physically sick more often. DG was concerned.

"Why do you ask, sweetheart?" asked Ahamo, sprinkling pepper onto his eggs, and the Queen waited intently for her answer. DG looked back down to her plate, pushing around a strange, pink fruit.

"Oh, well, you know, just curious. I've heard talk about them, so I wanted to read about them."

"There's always the Library," Azkadellia offered.

The younger princess considered it. "Thank you, sister. Now if you will all excuse me, I would like to see how Mona is adjusting to all of this."

"Oh my God, I feel like a Pretty Pretty Princess. Give me those annoying earrings, Deeg, because I will wear them if it means I get to stay here!" Mona launched herself onto the bed as if she was fifteen years younger. DG gave her friend a small smile, finding that the large one just wasn't in stock today.

"Heard anything from Jeb, lately?"

Mona played with a tassel on a bolster pillow, kicking her feet behind her. "He said that he wants to take me to the Farm," she looked up, confused. "Is that what they call it around here?"

DG laughed at that. "Um, not to my limited, but aggravating, knowledge, no. He probably was referring to the old Cain family horse ranch."

"He's a _cowboy_, too?" Her friend grew serious, crawling across the large bed to hug DG from behind. "And this isn't too weird? I mean, me being attracted to Jeb, and you with his dad? Because you had first dibs."

DG raised an eyebrow. "Do you forget who got you out of the house how many times?"

Mona squeezed her. "The fireworks were nice that one time, I must admit." DG ran her finger over the brocade.

"If I don't have any appointments, perhaps I'll come along. I would rather not be around here at the moment, anyway."

Mona picked up and the tone. "Oh? What's wrong?"

"Wyatt said not to jump to conclusions, but that there was a marriage contract on my mother's desk. Now, it could be for me-which it probably is-or it could be for Az. She's sort of off limits right now, what with everything that just happened. We thought we were going to get out of it, so I just-I need some time. So if I leave with you two, and Wyatt comes along, we buy ourselves some time."

Her friend nodded, but then when DG gave her a smile that tasted bitter to herself, the girl drew back. "You got me out of mine, and now you're in one. I really did not plan on that."

"None of us did, Mona," sighed DG, looking at the window. Mona's room was actually part of her suite, meant for a maid, but it was gorgeous and had a walk in wardrobe and a glorious bathroom only a fraction smaller than DG's. "I finally found what made me happy, and now there's a chance…But it's not going to happen. I won't let it."

It would appear, to the casual observer, that the youngest member of the Great House of Gale was trying to take an entire wall of the expansive library with her. She teetered on the ladder.

"I could get that for you, you know," said the blonde-haired man watching her apprehensively, hand hovering near her back to keep her from falling.

"But this is helping me with built up anger, Mr. Cain." The library staff were all just a bunch of gossiping ninnies, so DG kept things formal between them. "I can do my research, _plus_burn calories. Hey, watch that hand." The hand that had started to drop towards less safe territory, lower down, shot back up. "I think this is it, anyway."

Wyatt took the books from DG, which allowed her to open the door for him upon exiting, a fact that he protested. In the hallway, he gave her a suffering look.

"Oh come off it, Cain," she huffed. "You know I can open a door, just like I can still probably tackle check-skippers twice my size, twice as smelly, and named Bubbah." The last part received an interesting look.

"I'm guessing there's a story behind that."

So she told him.

Her wardrobe had already been packed into an unassuming container, and all of Mona's new dresses and clothes were to be sent to the Cain Farm once they were finished. All that was left was to quickly tell her mother and fly like a mobat out of the Witch's chest from the castle and into the back of the truck.

So Wyatt accompanied her, smiling when he caught sight of her jeans underneath the long skirt when she lifted it to ascend the stairs. She gave him a knowing smile and secretly wished to be rid of the extra guards as quickly as possible. She felt like she was in a bubble, and not a good one.

This time she was announced in and she gave her mother a small curtsey. Her mother rose from her chair in a graceful move. "Deijhi, you are _just_the person I wanted to see," started her mother warmly, and the girl knew she had to move quickly.

"Actually, Mother, I wanted to let you know that I was leaving for a few days. Mr. Jebediah Cain is showing my friend Mona his family ranch, and I was asked to be Mona's companion, as she has no family here and is under my protection," sped DG through the parts she had rehearsed. "Mr. Cain will be accompanying me, since an entire detail of Tin Men would be quite noticeable."

"So you are asking me for permission?" her mother asked, pointedly, to which DG blushed, and continued, sheepishly.

"More like making you aware, mother. And our friends Raw of the Viewers and Advisor Ambrose shall be meeting us there."

The mention of Ambrose sealed the deal for her. Her mother stressed the importance of notifying her earlier, next time, but wished her a safe journey.

"Actually, there is something I need to dis-"

"Goodbye, Mother!" cried DG as she quickly exited and rounded a corner with Wyatt at her heels. With a laugh she continued through the old wing, stopping to glance on the old throne room, and then down the narrow, cobwebbed stairwell.

"Did you even run this fast before?" gasped her companion, breathless as they started to travel downward. Giddy with anticipation and relief, the dark haired woman easily pushed him against the wall, as he was unprepared, and kissed him, thoroughly.

"Now we're even," she said with a fiendish look, and then, giving him a look that was an attempt at being cross, said "Yes, several times, and the most recent ones were with you right beside me." Where he belonged.

Mona clapped her hands when she saw DG all but throw herself gracelessly into the back of the truck. Jeb turned in his seat and gave a small nod to his father and then he tried to bow his head towards DG. She would not have any of it.

"Honestly, Jeb, you do_not_have to do that. Just a simple 'hello' would suffice, but only if you feel like it. If you are going to be getting cozy with my beloved Mona, then you better get used to seeing me." He blushed a light pink at that, and the princess was careful to leave out the part where she and his father were all but engaged.

Driving to the Cain Ranch was a lot like the road trip the girls had taken, but with less frequent stops because Sarah was not with them, having to stop at every rest place they passed. Wyatt settled against the wall behind Jeb, and watched the streets dissolve into open fields and trees. DG, feeling ridiculously awkward but still riding the high of getting out of whatever it was that her mother had planned, crawled over while Jeb and Mona were talking animatedly and slipped onto the bench structure.

"You know she's going to be waiting at the palace steps when we get back, I'm sure," he said, needlessly. DG simply leaned into him, and he shifted until she was leaning back against him, and he had one leg on her one side, propped up, and the other resting on the floor. His arms banded her stomach, fingers smoothing fabric. "I won't let this happen, Deij, honey." Her eyes widened.

"_That's_a new one. Let's reserve that for those very private moments, okay…baby?" He laughed openly, kissing her ear, and then he whispered something in her ear that she swore she would never get tired of, and things were quiet for a while.

She must have drifted off, because suddenly, she was shaken awake with a small gasp. Wyatt murmured something soothing to her, and she relaxed against him, swallowing and licking her dry lips.

"I know you're disappointed that we didn't get to try out this bed, but I promise in the future that we will," he said as he helped her down, and she launched into a rushed and nonsensical lecture about the benefits of eloping, following him as he tried to unpack the truck, and arguing with him when he refused to allow her to help.

But then there were two bulky young men, a little younger than Mona-though it did not stop them from eyeing her in a way that left all three other members of the party glaring coldly-helping bring the items into the beautiful, large home that lay before them.

The home itself, with it's three stories and two wings reaching towards them like opening arms, was a beautiful piece of architecture. The white paint of the outside was pristine, and the place reminded DG very much of the old, southern plantations she would see traveling east on school trips.

But it was land surrounding the home that made DG forget to breathe. Nothing was the dirt and brown of Kansas. All around them were beautiful, open fields, green and lush. The stable could be seen in the distance. The horses were _everywhere_, most of them white and beautiful, though some of them seemed to be mixed breeds.

"And past the trees are more fields, all our property," boasted Jeb as he took Mona's arm. "The Witch needed horses for her carriages and Longcoats, and by supplying them, Grandfather was able to pass on information to me as to where to find them. And what spooked them easy," he added with a grin.

A salt-and-pepper man, with Wyatt's square face and healthy skin, was casually making his way over to the group. Next to her, Wyatt straightened and took a step away from DG.

The man, as he came closer, was definitely an artist. There was something dreamy about his eyes, a shocking green that DG had come to know as Emerald District Green. It was a common trait among those from the area, and DG realized that Wyatt must have gotten the color of his eyes, which she loved so much, from his mother. A slender artist's hand reached out to DG, and the shock of being greeted so informally froze the princess for a moment too long.

"Father," chided Wyatt, placing an arm around DG, but just far enough away for her to feel the warmth but not the touch. "This is _Princess Deijhi_."

"And she's at my home," his father said, pointedly, and good naturedly, fixing DG with a brilliant smile that erased years from the man's face. Now_that_Wyatt had gotten from his father, even if he did show it often. "So I greet her as a friend. I trust the Old Road was kind to you, your highness," he said with a small bow as he shook her hand. His grip was strong, and firm. The greeting was traditional.

"Yes," she managed, feeling obtuse. "Uneventful, but I'm sure that has to do with the protection of your son and grandson. And please call me DG."

He leaned forward, still holding onto her hand. She did not think it was possible for the smile to grow wider, but it did.

"From what I hear, you might as well call me 'Dad'."

She sputtered, as did Wyatt, and Cain Senior roared with laughter.


	14. Chapter 14

**Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents, OCs by the barrel**

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: R**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 2,334**

And right after that wonderful sentence, Emmett Cain continued on, greeting Mona and Jeb. Wyatt was sporting an expression which reminded DG of the one she wore the first time (and first time she had ever tried) to sneak out of her house: it was equal parts, surprise, fear, and wonder at how the hell parents are so good at that sort of thing.

"You know, on the Other Side, ranches are usually these one floor homes, or, you know, within visible distance of their property borders, but I like this version; I could get used to this," said DG as they walked inside through Maplewood double doors.

Cain Senior was a born diplomat, and DG was thinking of stealing him to take with her on some of the Goodwill tours her parents and advisors had been threatening about. Brandishing this man who did not seem to know how to age properly would probably be a good weapon.

He showed them everything they would probably need while staying there, and then took them onto a balcony on the back of the house. Though you could not tell it from the other side, there was a well-manicured lawn with gardens, and past a few dogwoods, DG could make out a maze.

"Can your Dad adopt me?" gushed DG, in a whisper to Wyatt. "Wait forget that."

"Because then we'd-"

"Exactly."

"And although you cannot see it, the Gulch Estate ruins are to our left. They were wonderful neighbors of ours before the last Gulch, Benjamin, disappeared. Longcoats ransacked the place early on."

"Gulch? As in, Judge Gulch?" asked DG, scoffing. Cain, biting the inside of his lip to keep from laughing nodded. "Now that explains things, like…just about everything, really."

The Gulch family was quite close to Henry and Emily, and of course, DG. It was only the son that hated her. At Christmas parties, as the youngest, she had been showered with gifts and presents, just like him. But the affection she had received as well was what probably ticked him off.

Emmett Cain concurred, knowingly. "Yes, rumor has it that Gulch traveled over to the other side, though we did not know what became of the court official. You say he is a judge over there, too?"

"And his son tortured her, up until recently," Wyatt said, although it did not sound like he believed it, before DG could respond. "He is one of their Tin Men."

She really wished she could go back, at that second, and do _something _to taunt Gulch. Like what, she wasn't sure, because she hadn't planned anything, but DG was too busy trying to, well, not get married.

"I like _this_. I could really get used to this," sighed DG, breathless as she fell back into the pillows, barely caring about how sweaty she was. Wyatt fixed her with a lazy smile from where he had rolled to before kissing her again.

"I can't believe you haven't passed out yet, darlin'."

DG arched an eyebrow, and turned her head. "The day is young, Wyatt Cain. And I used to ride horses back in Kansas."

He sat up, and after a moment of studying DG, went back to unpacking. "Sure didn't look like that to me, what with the almost falling off and then the insisting you would only feel safe riding with me."

"Did I mention they were ponies? At a county fair? Being led in a circle?" DG batted her eyelashes, demurely. "I promise next time I will keep my dirty, dirty hands to myself, and remember that the duster does not cover the front of you as much as the back, so people can see where my hand are. On you."

"We nearly got thrown off of the horse, I yanked those reins so hard. Poor thing can't tolerate a hormonal princess."

DG looked up at the ceiling, brightly saying "Sure thing Captain Tightpants."

And then he was leaning over her and staring down, and she was pushing the wattage of her smile. "What?"

Um. "Can you give me a second, I'm trying to think of a reason to say that you misheard me and I really said 'typecast'. Nope. Nothing." She sat up, which caused him to have to straighten if he didn't want a face full of princess. "It's from a show, and before you ask, yes, your pants are sort of on the tight-ish side, and no, it's not bad. In fact, I like you and your little pants, prancing around with me and-"

But then she being kissed within an inch of her life, and if only that hand at her waist would just move up a little more than it ever did, then the occasional brush of the underneath of her-

He was laughing into their kiss. "Great Gale, I love you," he said, suddenly, and sobered. "That's why we need to discuss what we're doing about the contract."

"No, we can do that later. Right now, I'm making out with the O.Z. equivalent of a Ken doll genetically spliced with some pure version of sex appeal, and am doing the avoidance dance. At all once. See?" She twirled a pointer around, and wiggled a bit.

"Let's stop that last part, shall we?" he asked in a tone that did not bode well. "I've been thinking about it, and I think we should tell your mother about us. About being Intended."

"Wyatt, she _knows_. And yet she's still pushing one of us onto some guy, and if that ambassador is any sign, one wearing plaid. I don't look good in _plaid_."

"You look great in anything."

"I'd look better in _nothing_."

He sighed and helped her up. "I really don't think the bed is the place for this conversation." And she had to admit that he was right.

"Wyatt, she doesn't care. Why else would she be going through with this? And we don't even know if it was for me. It could be for Az, in which case she'll pretend to go mobat-shit crazy, there will screaming and crying on the suitor's part, and then he'll leave and all will be well. Or maybe it's for someone else in the city?"

He gave her the look. The one that said 'you and I both know you are trying to act like the situation is fine, when it really isn't'.

Not quite sure what to say to quell it, DG shrugged. "If you need me, I'll be unpacking my things."

"Wait, _Deijhi_." He caught her around the waist and pulled her towards him, and DG could only give him a miserable look as she felt the tears start.

"I just want to enjoy the time right now, okay? Because I need it to figure out how the hell I'm getting out of this, and what to do to finally make you remove your little moratorium on the fun."

But then he embraced her, and she sighed, enjoying the feeling for as long as she could. This certainly wasn't going to ever happen within the palace's walls, and in truth, she needed it.

"Two months ago, I was dreaming of having a guy like you while serving cheeseburgers to the morbidly obese travelers of Kansas, and trying to pass College Calculus so I could move ahead to still not knowing what I was getting a degree in. And now it's like some one is trying to fast-forward through my H.E.A. to some sucky, unknown part past that."

"Your H-"

"Happily Ever After," she said quickly. "I am _not _marrying anyone else, _Wyatt_. I'll go back to being a waitress at the Hilltop and live on the Other Side if I have to, but I am not doing it."

Wyatt was quiet, and DG simply listened to his heart below her ear. "Would be pretty hard to marry 'em anyway, because necrophilia is pretty much frowned upon in the O.Z., and that's what it would be when I was done with them."

So perhaps he wasn't particularly elegant, but her Tin Man could get his point across.

By the end of the second day, DG could mount a horse. That did not mean she could stay on it after doing so, or properly spur it to go anywhere, but she could get on. And every time she turned around from trying to do so, Wyatt was checking out parts of her that he hadn't up until then, and then the situation would be deemed futile and she would get to ride with him. Win-win situation.

Emmett was so wonderful to be around. She was amazed to find out the morning after arriving that the delicious food she was eating was, in fact, partially prepared by the owner of the ranch himself.

"Get bored with my boys off risking their necks," he explained. "If it weren't for the walk to the barn, I wouldn't be able to see my feet over my stomach."

He seemed to be just as at home at the barn as in the drawing room, one of the many in the house, playing an instrument. And then something that left DG dumbstruck happened.

Emmett, who had been playing some of the most beautiful music she had ever heard in her life, gave his son a smug look and said "Well if you're going to try to win her, you might as well prove you've got some talent other than running around and shooting things."

Looking uncomfortable, Wyatt rose from his spot on the settee next to her and picked up a guitar before sitting on a chair next to his father. "I haven't played in-"

"Nonsense. You're a Cain, boy, you've got instrument strings in your veins."

Wyatt gave him an impatient look before sourly saying "That might lead to circulation problems."

Mona leaned across Jeb to whisper to DG. "You two are such smartasses; I see the attraction now."

Cain Senior smirked. DG would have called it snarking, but no one present would know what that meant. All he needed was a twinkle in his eye and DG would be hunting down a scraggily dark haired boy with a scar so that they could just get it all over with. "Now play the princess that lovely tune you wrote when you were a child."

Her Tin Man cleared his throat, still looking as if he'd rather be somewhere else, and started to deftly play.

Mona said it before she could. "That's DG's song! She used to sing it, like, all the time when she didn't notice."

DG decided that someone must have pushed 'The Button' on the Great Glass Elevator of Weird and they were now accelerating past all levels known. "My sister and I sang it. My _mother _sang it."

"Because a young advisor to the Queen heard me playing it, and being a genius, he memorized all of it, played it for the Queen on the harp, and added words for two little princesses when they were born."

"I know that song!" came a voice from the foyer area. Then there was a thud. "Oh, that was a wall. I can't walk through those, can I?"

"Advisor Ambrose and Viewer Raw, how wonderful of you two to visit" Emmett greeted the two visitors warmly, as if men with a head covered in gauze and a viewer were the most normal sights he had seen. With a small, barely noticeable twist of his hand, a servant swept in. "Please go get-Glitch, is it?" he looked over at DG, who nodded. "Get Glitch some ice in a cloth, please."

The two were as delighted with the grounds as DG was, and it only took Mona a little longer than DG to get used to Glitch, who was still misfiring occasionally-the doctors wanted him back within a week for therapy-and Raw in all of his furry glory.

"Mona very brave, very strong," said Raw simply, and her friend looked at him in wonder.

Realizing that Mona was distracted, and Jeb was off to the side, she made her way over to him and plucked at his shirt sleeve. "Hey, Jeb, want to walk with me?"

There was reluctance for an instant, but then he unfolded himself and pushed off of the fence. "Sure, Pr-DG."

The lane leading to the Gultch ruins was shady and quiet, and her friends' voices drifted down the dusty road. Next to her, Jeb jammed his hands into his pockets. DG was twisting a daisy-well it looked like one, but a peculiar pink tinged its petals-into a ring.

"So you and Mona are getting along rather well," she started. When he didn't say anything, merely blushing, she continued. "I just want to remind you she doesn't really have family here, and as her best friend, it's my job to tell you this. Just keep in mind it's sort of customary on the Other Side: I will totally kick your ass if you break her heart."

"I'm not planning on it."

She put the ring on her pinky, where it sat for a second before breaking off and falling to the ground. "I know you aren't, Jeb; you're faithful and loyal and everything I could want for my Mona, but I still just felt the need to say that."

And then she took a deep breath. "And I think that you and I have other things to talk about."

Jeb kicked at a stone. "I already got a lecture from my mother about the birds and the bees; when she got pregnant the second time."

It was a difficult subject, and they both swept past it. DG swung herself up onto the fence, and padded the spot next to her. She arranged the folds of her skirt so that they did not take up the entire length; it was the petticoat from one of her dresses, but it wasn't sheer and hell, if she could look like she belonged in that Shania Twain perfume ad, with the fields and the dreamy softness, she was going to do her best. They were across the path from a stream and some foliage, and it was pretty, so it would give them both an excuse to not look at one another, if they needed it.

"So it's that here, too? Good to know _something _is the same on both Sides. But, well, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. It's about your father. And me."

He gave a curt nod, lanky blonde hair a curtain to DG.

"I wanted to know how you felt about it, but let me just say this, first, okay? I will never try to be your mother, or make your father forget Adora. She was a wonderful, kind woman whom your father loved, and who gave birth to you, and raised you. I would never want you to think I'm taking her place-or trying to."

Jeb stared at her, and she found his eyes were quite a bit like his father's, but there was something about them, a bit starved, a bit lacking. She could only hope that Mona could help him with that emptiness. "I-that is to say. Damn, Princess, you certainly know how and what to say to make a guy feel right stupid."

Guilt flooded her heart. "Oh, no Jeb, that wasn't my intention!"

"Not like that, DG. I just never thought you would be so kind; my father says you've got the biggest heart he's ever seen, but I didn't believe him until now."

Relief settled onto her shoulders, and she bumped his. "So do you want to talk about it? Say anything. I'm slowly coming to the understanding that you two don't discuss feelings an awful lot, but I'm here to listen."

It took him a moment to gather what he wanted to say. "You and I are two years apart, and that is one of the things that I just find sort of strange about all of this."

DG gave him a crooked, tragic smile. "Yeah, well, I subtract ten years from your father's age, for obvious reasons, and my family on the Other Side always called me 'an old soul'. But it is a bit socially scandalous, and there probably will be talk about it, in time. It would be great if you and I could be friends, though."

He considered this. "Alright. Okay."

She patted him on the back, and kept an arm draped over his shoulders in a sign of camaraderie on the way back. When they reached a high spot on the walk, and they could both see Wyatt, DG flashed him a large smile.

"You do realize that my father has probably used this Mushy Time to get embarrassing information about you from Mona, correct?" Jeb asked, in a low voice as they made their way over, and DG shrugged.

"As long as you and your grandfather have dirt on him, I'm prepared. And as long as she tells him about _that _ring _I always wanted_," she raised her voice at the end. "Then it's all swell and shiny."


	15. Chapter 15

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: PG-13 for minor curse words and some naughty stuff**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 2,338**

_A.N.: Since this story just hit 10,000 hits, I thought I'd give my thanks by posting the rest of the story. But please, review! This story is on 90 user's alert lists, and there aren't even that many reviews. Makes Swirl sort of sad. _

_Also, this chapter is going to delve into some darker matter, and I apologize in advance._

* * *

"It was almost winter when we left, you know," said Mona, as the little party sat before a fire. The house was off in the distance, but the bonfire and the horses and the quiet made her feel as if they were very far away. It was hard to keep a safe distance between her and Wyatt. Raw knew. Of course he knew, but telling Glitch was something she had to time carefully, as she did not know when he might just have a blip and start telling the Queen a wonderful story about walking in on the Princess and the Tin Man getting hot and heavy. Not that he would call it that. Or maybe he would.

"Will be winter," said Cain Senior, breaking the quiet. "To my understanding, time usually passes them by quicker."

Mona sat straight up, removing her head from its resting place on Jeb's shoulder. "But DG said it had been two months since she had left. And it had been."

But now it was DG's turn to be confused. "Ahamo told me that the worlds branched in the 1940s…even though it's been almost a century here. This makes no sense."

"And it wont. The worlds are supposed to be kept apart. That's why they have those 'yeers' and we have the annual," came Glitch's voice, serious and steely from somewhere in the grass. "We even sent a man over there to test it all out. Name was Benjamin…or maybe it was Frank? What was I talking about again?"

DG sighed.

DG was wandering the halls when Emmett found her, studying a photograph of a young Wyatt, obviously taken when he wasn't paying attention. The sun gleamed off of his face and torso, his shirt tied around his hips, and he was wiping at his face.

"That was taken just about the time you were born, you know," came the eldest Cain's voice from behind her. DG jumped, but he took up her arm and guided her down the hallway. "He was tending to those PureWhites of ours, very tentative. He's always been very good at that; caring for what is his."

Oh, hah, she didn't see where this was going. Or the little remark about their age difference. But he wasn't opposing the theoretical idea of the two of them-they had been so very careful at night, alternating rooms, since neither found sleep easy with the other not there, and so no one in the house was aware of their nightly activities. In fact, DG noted glumly, they probably would think it was more than what was really going on.

"I had a dog, once," she said, but didn't finish. It had to be put to sleep after it had gotten bitten by a rabid raccoon he was protecting her from. DG had never cried so much in her life.

"I'm sure you did," came the soft, reassuring voice at her side. There was silence as they walked through a side door and out into the gardens. At night, with torches lit, it was beautiful and eerily silent. A twinge of concern pocked DG then, and she thought of her sister, back in the palace alone. Her mother wouldn't try to make her go through with a marriage, would she?

"Has he asked you yet?"

DG stopped dead in her tracks, although the older man continued. "I-what?"

"Has my son asked for your hand in marriage?" he repeated slowly, although she could tell he found something about the whole thing funny.

"No-that is to say-Wow, Emme-"

"Dad," he corrected, gesturing for her to follow and take his arm again.

It was sort of weird coming out of her mouth the first time, but it reminded her of flannel and big bear hugs and macaroni photo frames from years gone by. "Dad, then. You are good." And she was met with a hearty laugh.

"This is the way I survived the war; by being very careful and very observant. Wyatt has been writing to me for two long months of the wondrous princess who came charging in with a stick to save the day, and at first his letters were short and terse, very much like the ones he would write while in Tin Man training. But then they kept growing longer and longer, and bless his heart, I am sure glad there was no one screening them. He may not have come out and said it, but it was there."

Somehow this felt wrong, to be hearing all of this from his father. Like going behind his back. Her discomfort must have been obvious, because the old man rushed onward. "Oh don't be ashamed or upset, DG. I say these things because he cannot. Not out loud, at least.

"So back to my question, has he asked you yet?"

They sat on a bench, and DG played with the hem of the thick knit shawl she had on. "No, not outright."

"And which one of you hesitates to take this step? I am certain if it came down to it, you'd ask him. I can see that in you," he said proudly, tapping her on the round edge of her jaw. "Strong, stubborn chin, right there."

"There was an ulterior motive to coming here. Not that, you know, I wanted to see this place and it really is even more beautiful than he had described it."

"But?" he waited, giving her the room she needed to get her emotions in check and say what she had to.

"But there was a marriage contract on my mother's desk, and what with reconstruction starting and the need for allies…I just," and then her throat was closing up again, and she resorted to shaking her head, furiously. "I can't marry somebody else. No one else but him."

She wiped at the tears starting to form, but then he reached over, in a warm, paternal sort of way, and dabbed at them for her, and she gave a shaky laugh before voicing her hopes aloud. "I just sort of hoped that, maybe, his name was on it. Like maybe you guys weren't originally from the O.Z., and you'd just announce to him suddenly that he's really a duke and then," but DG trailed off as she saw his face. Emmett gave her a sad, sympathetic smile. "But I know that's not going to happen."

"Princess DG, if there were a way for me to crown myself a king, and make my Wyatt a prince, I would in the briefest and quickest of heartbeats. But it is not to be." He finished dabbing, folded the handkerchief up, and offered her a hand. She took it, confused.

"No, dear. Help an old man up."

Blushing, DG got up and turned around, offering him a hand. He did not seem to need it, but grabbed it up and brought it up so it could be seen in the light of the torches. He squinted at it. Only later would DG realize it had been her left hand.

Emmett gave no explanation, only tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and led her back inside.

"My father _knows_?" came Wyatt's surprised voice from the bathroom. He appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, half dressed and panic clearly written on his face. If that sort of information got him to come out dressed like that, DG hoped there was an inverse correlation between the seriousness of the news and the less clothes he would emerge in. Hah. She finally got it. It only took half-naked, gun toting, delicious looking Tin Men to get her to understand math. Call it Hooked on Wyatts.

"Well, he said he already had a grandson, so he knew that you knew what you were doing." DG had her toothbrush in her mouth, so it came out sort of strange, but then she walked in, eyes averted and spat it out before leaving again. She started to undue the braids from her hair, finding that there was hay in it. Oh if only it had gotten there they way she wanted it to…

"And what about you? Did he say-"

"No, _Dad_didn't say anything about me that involved calling me a skank or promiscuous or knowledgeable in the ways of the bedroom, Wyatt…but if I said he did would you come charging out here without that shirt of your's again?"

"It hurts me to crush that joy, darlin'."

DG slumped further into the pillows. "It's so quiet here," she said, in wonder.

"My room?"

"No," she said, and tired of raising her voice to carry on the conversation, she padded over to the doorway and leaned against it, arms folded. He turned from brushing his own teeth to look at her. "I mean _here_. This area. Is it because of the Longcoats still thinking-"

"That's my guess and fear all at once. I really don't think we should stay here that long, _Deijhi_. Who knows how long it is until one of them gets the bright idea to come get a horse."

She watched the movement of his chest, the wiry, golden hair there, and the scars that are barely noticeable from here. "So you're saying we should go back?"

"Soon, I reckon."

DG grinned. "I love it when you get all twangy on me. Now come to bed."

The news came the next afternoon, just as DG had slammed a door after walking in on Mona and Jeb getting awfully cozy. A farmhand came stomping in with a small pouch in his hand.

"Falcon just dropped this," he gruffly said and dropped it into DG's hand. His eyes strayed for a moment too long, and DG felt rather than saw Cain step out from the shadows.

"Thanks, Micah. I reckon there's work waiting for you out at the barn, now."

He seemed to not get it. DG heard a pistol being cocked, and her eyes widened. "Alright, Micah. Thank you for giving this to me. Bye!" She spun and walked inside, opening the pouch as Wyatt grumbled and then protested.

"You don't know who-" but he stopped, looking at the red, small disc in her hand. "It looks like those blue ones Tutor was dropping." She was really trying to ignore the fact that a falcon had dropped it, and to keep from humming Hedwig's Theme, but from the look on Wyatt's face, things were serious. "This is bad, isn't it?"

He nodded, grimly, before taking her by the hand and leading her down a hallway to his father's chambers. Emmett looked up from the piano that sat in the middle of the room, the last note echoing through the air.

"We need to use your Viewing Machine," said Wyatt quietly, and Emmett wordlessly rose from the bench and brought them over to a curtain near his desk. He lifted it, and concealed was a smaller version of what had been in the Witch's tower to show DG her mother and the memories. Wyatt took the disk and placed it in the tray.

"Deijhi, my darling," started her mother's voice just before the picture cleared in the water. "It is imperative that you come home."

DG relaxed slightly. If this was just about the marriage contract, then-

"Your sister's health has taken a turn for the worse, and she refuses anyone to care for her. My beauty, you must return. _She needs you_."

DG was sprinting to her room and packing before Wyatt could say a word.

The truck was packed hastily, and DG and her guard set off quickly. Before leaving, Emmett enveloped DG in a firm, sweet hug.

"Don't be a stranger, sweet DG. You are welcome here whenever you wish."

She smiled into his shoulder. "Thanks, Dad."

Emmett gave his son a brief handshake, giving him a strong, cryptic look before enveloping Wyatt in a hug. "Go well and be well, my Son."

They were back to the castle in half the time it should have taken, and DG swept in and past the guards before they could say a word, taking the steps two at a time.

"Azkadellia, my sister, please tell me what's wrong," begged DG, reaching out. Her sister slapped her away and seemed to shrink into the bed. She just looked so _small_, so delicate that DG had felt the need to reach out to her.

"I'm filthy, DG, I'm disgusting," came a small voice. DG sat on the edge of the bed, and only realized too late she was probably getting dirt on the pristine sheets.

"Az, I can't help you unless you tell me what's wrong. I've known something was up for a while."

Her sister drew her knees up and rested her chin on it, brown eyes large and frightened. Something in DG's gut did not feel right. "'Dellia?"

"She'd let me out, sometimes," she said in a quiet voice, and DG realized how young her sister really was. "I'd scream and then I could hear her laugh right along with them. They wouldn't stop. They just wouldn't stop."

There was a haunted look in her eyes, and DG knew the answer before she asked; she swallowed down the quickly rising bile. "Are you…"

Her sister nodded almost imperceptibly. "Three months." Now her sister looked as if she would be physically ill.

"And the father-"

And then her sister turned to her, and opened her arms as if she was a child. In a way, DG would always be the older sister now, and she held her sister close as the tears came and Azkadellia shook.

"At night, I still see his face. I still see Zero."


	16. Chapter 16

**Characters/Pairing: DG/Cain**

**Rating: R**

**Summary:When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: Spoilers for entirety of Tin Man. Some more mature stuff as it goes on.**

**Disclaimer: I only play with, but I do not own. So far Emmett, Carly, and Mona are my OC babies.**

**Word Count: 2,594**

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"I'm going to fucking _kill_him," DG said, venomously, as she watched her sister's finally sleeping form. Curled to her side defensively around a pillow, and brow furrowed in sleep, Azkadellia brought to surface deep, burning anger from the pit of DG's stomach. Glitch and Cain looked on, somberly, as Raw passed a hand over the head of the whimpering young woman.

"She's so young, when you get to thinking about it," said Glitch in a fragile voice. "And in some ways, she's even more broken than me."

There was a distinct sound of metal clinking against metal preceding in an order that meant only one thing. DG brought her hand down on the gun. "It won't do any good. I was just saying that because I was angry. He deserves the prison he is in, Wyatt."

He seemed to be weighing his options, so DG repeated his name. "Wyatt."

"His charges will be even greater, now. He's assaulted a member of the House of Gale, and it's sexual assault, on top of it." By the time that Glitch and Raw and arrived back at the palace, Raw had said their friend was well on his way to healing. Glitch was watching the sleeping princess with a sad look.

"We will have to tell your mother, DG." Back to the name everyone else used, even if she was throwing his name around like it was breathing. Which it was. What she wanted was to just go somewhere quiet with him and go over some sort of plan, something.

"If I had been there," she whispered, "I could have stopped that. If I had never gone into that cave, this wouldn't have…" They saw her cry too much as it was, so DG exited from the room, quickly.

"Mother," came Az's faltering voice. They had their hands joined, just as they had in childhood, and the light emitting from their skin was bright in the dusky light of their mother's study. "We must talk."

Their mother smiled and placed her pen back into its holder. "My loves, I am so glad to see you both here, together. There is much we must discuss."

DG led her sister to a couch near the fire, and her sister numbly came along. Their mother perched on a chair and folded her hands neatly on her lap. The dress she wore sparkled in the dark, and DG absently noted that Dancing with the Stars would probably kill for a dress that brilliant.

"My darlings, with war tearing our country apart, it is imperative that we strengthen our alliances with bordering principalities. We are so very vulnerable right now."

Vulnerable. "That's partially why we need to talk to you, actually, Mother." DG spoke up because her sister looked like she was going to be sick.

"We have entered into a marriage contract with our ally, Lorado."

Both girls stared. Since when did their mother become a band aid ripper? She was more of the type of person to slowly, ever so gently, while having a completely unrelated conversation, take it off.

Their mother leaned forward, and took the older sister's shaking hands into her own slender, graceful ones. "My darling Azkadellia, by tradition, you have the right to marry first. I am sure Deijhi will understand if you wish to bide your time, and postpone the marriage. And you will have your pick of any of the Emperor's many, fine, young sons."

"Mother, I can't…marry."

Their mother frowned, and it was a pretty frown, but one that was strange and foreign on her face.

DG wrapped an arm, supportively, around her sister's shoulders. Az gave her an appreciative look and trudged forward. "I-I'm pregnant mother."

The look of disappointment on their mother's face was clear, even in the firelight, and DG stood up angrily. Of all the stupid things!

"For Dorothy's sake, Mother! Az was _raped_!"

And then their mother's face paled, and her eyes grew teary. "My Dellia, is this the reason for…Oh, I have failed to protect you from so many things. I should not have-this is-" Their mother stopped abruptly, and stared into the fire, as if the answers would be there.

"It was the Witch," her sister said, shaking and swallowing thickly. DG could see that she was trying to keep the worst of her fear and disgust at bay. "Not since. I am sorry that I have dishonored the family."

DG thought back to everything she had been reading. In this very moment, Az could have been handing over any chance at the throne. Not that their mom was such a hard-ass, but still.

She remembered something.

"Mother," she asked, trying very much to control the highness of her voice. "You didn't specify which daughter in that contract, did you?"

Her mother's silence was enough of an answer. When had OZ started to revolve in the opposite direction? DG clutched at the couch and sat back down.

"Let's get Ahamo to join us, and then Mr. Cain," said Azkadellia, as if sensing her sister's shock. "I want to file a report so that the charges can be pressed. And perhaps, if it's not too much, Advisor Ambrose could sit with me?"

By the time Wyatt had finished the papers and had them sent, discretely, to the head of the Tin Men of Central City, DG was feeling drained, and empty and trapped. That dryness that comes from crying your eyes out accompanied it all, and the second that she and her guard (Glitch had walked, with their parents, Azkadellia back to her room for the night) had rounded a corner and checked no one was near, DG had leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I found something, earlier today," he said quietly as he closed her door behind him. DG sat heavily onto the edge of her bed and watched as he checked the numerous doors and closets and windows and corners and dark places that she had never noticed to exist before Wyatt Cain was giving her a wonderful view of his back, started checking them.

"A giant rewind button?" she asked, darkly, but then she groaned and fell backwards onto the comforter. "I hate this feeling of powerlessness. I hate feeling like I couldn't have stopped this all from happening to my sister. I'm supposed to protect her."

"Hey," came a warning voice directly above her. "Cut that out. You are not responsible for that filth's actions, or the Witch's."

She shook her head. "It still doesn't take that feeling away. The guilt is still there."

"It always will be," he said, earnestly, sitting on the edge of the bed so that he could look down on her. "But it will get easier over time. The pain dies down."

"And my sister's? What about my sister and what she went through? I should be helping her instead of wallowing like this. And still worrying about the contract."

A paper was dropped onto her stomach, and DG sat up to read it. "What is this?"

Of course she read it, even as he explained it. The certificate of their Intention, as Tested by Rawl of the Viewers, witnessed by Raw, Son of Rawl.

"And how were we not aware of this?" she asked, heart rate accelerating as she realized what this meant.

"It was kept in the House of Gale's sealed family records, but while I was preparing paperwork for this assault claim, it was nearby. Raw handed it to me."

DG pressed her forehead into the muscular arm on the bed next to her. "Do you ever get this feeling that there is a whole group of people who know things about you, but they just don't tell you? It's the one sucky part of the Princess deal-okay, one of them-; you're not sure if you're a princess or just paranoid and suffering from delusions of grandeur."

"This is our ticket to your freedom. You mother will have to void the contract with Larado-What's wrong?"

"This is missing your father's signature, Wyatt," she said, feeling a wave of nausea pull at her. There was Ahamo's, but none bearing the name of Emmet Cain. Even if it proved everything, it was nothing." The paper came to rest on the bed between them. He would have to leave soon, to keep up the appearance that she was not going to sneak into his room later tonight. It was strange. At night, once they had removed the possibility of their being any nightly aerobics exercise, DG and Wyatt had settled into a pattern of sleepy admittances, quietly sharing secrets under warm comforters and a canopied bed. She found it more appealing than even the other part. And _that_was saying something.

With a sigh, Wyatt reached over and gave her a lingering kiss, as if trying to instill in her some of the strength she was going to be needing. "We will figure a way around this, and make sure that Zero suffers for all that he has done."

DG did not get some sleep, as Wyatt had instructed her to do before slipping into the room on the other side of hers. Instead, she tore into all of the books she had lugged back to her room.

It was hours of endless texts on law, marriage, and tradition. It all was a crock of shit to DG, even if that crock was silver and engraved.

Because DG was a princess, and a citizen of the Outer Zone, she would only be able to give consent if her father and mother gave it, and in her royal case, the Queen had to. So that tossed out elopement.

Wyatt, on the other hand, had been able to marry whomever the hell he pleased once he had entered the Tin Man Academy, since he had taken on the title of Tin Man and had the responsibilities of being one.

But then she stumbled across a wonderful section of one text, old and blue and musty, and DG smiled.

She's been living in Kansas for well over the five necessary years to make her a dual citizen.

Wyatt made the most endearing little noises when woken up out of a dead sleep, which happened the second DG had stepped through. The gun was only half pulled out from under the pillow. _That_practice would be stopped soon, if she had anything to do with it.

"My door was locked," he stated groggily. DG shrugged and slipped into the bed, moving close to him to absorb some of his warmth. He muttered something about her cold feet, but she ignored him. "My door _is_locked."

"I made one," she said, simply, motioning to the bare expanse of wall that she had simply told to become a door. The knob was gone, now, but it had been a very nice one. It was on the floor now, she guessed. A stout candle holder.

He had a shirt on, damn it. DG had imagined this all happening with him bare-chested and foggy and a bit like a romance novel cover. The disappointment disappeared quickly as he sat up and kissed her.

"I was going to wait until the morning, but I might as well do this now," he said, now suddenly awake. There was a light in his eyes, but he was licking his lips in a nervous gesture.

Cold air hit her legs as he threw back the covers and started to rummage through the drawer of his bedside table. His hand closed around something, and with his free one, he drew her out of the bed and to the balcony.

The ring was silver, with filigree that swirled around the band, tucking in its loops a large diamond at its center, and a few emeralds around the rest of the band, and they winked in the moonlight. The sight of it took Deijhi's breath away.

"My father gave this to me just before I left; it's the one he gave my mother, and my grandfather gave it to my grandmother. I know it's not as fancy as what you'll find dropped on the floor around here, but…Deijhi, if this means that we have to leave the O.Z., than so be it. If it means that they throw me in prison, then I can handle that. But I just wanted to say it, and to hear your answer. I could live the rest of my life happy just knowing what your answer had been."

"Wyatt, you already know that-" This was all so incredibly not what she had planned, but she loved it, anyway.

"Please, darlin," he begged, and she could only give an affirmative shake because her thoughts weren't forming in sentences; it was more bubbles of feelings and images. Time seemed to slow down as he gracefully dropped to one knee, all the while keeping eye contact.

"Deijhi Gale, will you marry me?"

There were a thousand ways for him to propose; he could have waited until they were, inevitably, in mortal peril, but that could have ended badly (she'd seen the movies). He could have stormed into some meeting. Hell, he could have just thrown her over his shoulder and told her once they were standing outside of a church. All of her preformed ideas had involved him in a billowing shirt and one included a ship called Serenity.

None of those were as simple and perfect as this.

"Yes," she blurted, and for once what was in her heart and head was the same as what was coming out of her mouth. "Yes, Wyatt, yes!"

With hands shaking as badly as hers, he slipped the ring onto her finger, but DG was rather busy trying to pull his head up to meet hers, because leaning down to kiss him was strange and not graceful, and she ended up more or less sitting on his bent knee, arms around his neck.

"Even if you-if we can't go through with this, I want you to have that."

That last bit was what brought her back on track. Of course, how on track could one be when they were engaged, damn it? But she tamped that nervous jittery excitement and desire to have her wicked way with him down and squeezed his shoulders.

"I consent, you know," she said, suddenly, and Wyatt gave her a confused look.

"I-that was-Didn't we already establish that?"

"No. No. What I mean is, I don't _need_my mother's consent. Or my father's. Or _anyone's_, for that matter. In Kansas, I'm a legal adult, and since I'm a dual citizen…"

Cain's blue eyes widened. "Oh," he said simply.

She drew him in by their joined hands, and the ring there sparkled and a small thrill went through her.

"Do you trust me?" she asked, even if she already knew the answer, because it gave time for her to figure out how she was going to suggest the next part.

"With my whole heart."

"Then let's go. Let's get out of here." She could only imagine what she looked like, cheeks flushed and hair ruffled. "_Let's get married_."

His shoulders dropped the smallest of fractions, but it was enough. "Deijhi, no priest or official in all of the O.Z. would marry us on this short notice. And they certainly won't marry the Heir Apparent of the Throne to her guard without the Queen's advance consent."

She grinned. "Oh, I completely agree with you. No one in the Outer Zone ever would. But someone in Kansas might."


	17. Chapter 17

**Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents**

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: R **

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 3,391 (longest yet)**

* * *

"Az, are you awake?" whispered DG as she snuck across the room to where her sister was curled under her covers. The girl groaned and sat up slightly.

"I am _now_. Whatever are you doing in my room, this late-"

"Actually, it's 'this early in the morning'," corrected DG, sheepishly, crossing the small distance between her sister's massive bed and the chair she was standing next to. Her sister sat up suddenly.

"Deij, what is that on her finger?" she said, quickly, eyes wide. "Is that a-oh my O.Z., Mother is going to _kill_you. No, she won't kill you; she'll send you to an abbey and him to the northern country in nothing but his under things."

There, again and involuntarily, was the memory of that dream of the back of the truck.

Her sister patted the space in the fancily embroidered covers next to her, and DG hesitated. "Are you sure?"

Azkadellia sighed. "I'm a little better, now. And you're my sister. I _need_you."

That made DG's stomach churn, but it was being covered slightly, by the giddiness that came as her sister held her hand out, inspecting the band with a happy look.

"It certainly isn't traditional, but I never excepted anything less from you, Little Sister."

"I'm sorry," DG said in the quiet. "The timing of all of this isn't what I would have ever wanted."

Her sister swatted at her, but then pulled her into a hug. "Oh, stop that," she chided. "I figured this would probably happen. For how many annuals have you had your eyes on your Tin Man? Why, I remember the looks on both of your faces, when you met, and all the times thereafter. I even remember Mother explaining to Father what it all meant, and how she had never seen a stronger linked pair than the two of you."

"Then why is she moving forward with this contract?" desperately asked DG, and her sister gave an eloquent shrug.

"Mother has always been, and always will be, an impossible enigma. I'm sure she's planning something, with all of this. But I know one thing, for sure; she never expected a wrench in the works. What are you two planning?" When she saw DG's hesitation, she continued. "She wouldn't think of asking a Viewer to do _that_, especially to me, and more importantly, on a pregnant woman."

DG put a hand on her sister's. "What are you planning on doing?"

"Keeping it," her sister said, plainly, a look of challenge in her eyes. "It's an innocent life, you know."

"Pro-life and abstinence; this place is more Christian than a Kansas church," muttered DG, shaking her head.

There was a shifting of sheets, and her sister was sitting on the edge of the bed next to her. "So what are you two doing? Going to the Other Side?" DG gave an affirmative nod.

"I think I know someone who could help us out," DG said vaguely, and her sister seemed to understand. The castle was still wired and ready for eavesdropping, and she just couldn't take chances. "But if you don't want me to leave, even for a few days, you say the word and I won't. I promised to never leave you, and I want to keep that promise."

Her sister's expression softened. "But you never will, at least not in my heart. But this baby won't be coming for months, and your needs are a little more immediate. You tell Wyatt that they will only be preparing things, and that he can be as involved as he wants when he gets back, with the interviews and charging. I suspect he'll be keen on that."

"Peachy keen," agreed DG, and gave a little dismissive wave when her sister tried to figure out what she had just said. "Other Side joke."

"Mona tells them a lot, too."

So Mona and Az had been getting along. Excellent. Her sister gave her a shove. "Get going, and give my new brother-in-love my love when it's appropriate. And don't worry about Mona, I'll tell her when she wakes up tomorrow, in private."

"Just make sure she and Jeb don't get in over their heads."

Az gave a light laugh that made DG feel a little better, like maybe they would all get out of this with only minor damage. "They'd only fit in a little better if that was the case. Get going, and don't worry, you might not even be noticed missing for a few days."

"Somehow I doubt that."

Wyatt was waiting in his room for her, having the presence of mind not to look too surprised when a door appeared where there hadn't been one a second earlier. He was buttoning up a flannel shirt, and a pair of jeans from their last trip. His hat was nowhere to be seen, and DG _knew_that it was love if he was willing to go without it.

"This clothing is warm," he complained, an hour later, as hand in hand they slipped out of Central City with nothing but the clothes on their back and scarf on DG. She gave him a reassuring squeeze of the hand before she let go, and summoned a Travelstorm.

"You'll need it," she called over the wind as it approached. "It will almost be winter there."

It was winter in Kansas. The jackets they wore weren't that thick, and by the time they reached the brick, neat home that was the Gulch homestead they were huddling on the porch together, trying to keep warm.

"I think now would be a good time to tell you something," said Wyatt gruffly, holding DG against him. She eyed him wearily. "He knows me. Well, knew me. As a kid."

DG turned and faced the screen door. "Age difference, technically not supposed to be marrying, and now a mutual Uncle Benjamin; so screwed up that we work, huh?"

Wyatt was about to kiss her when the door opened, and Clara Gulch peered out.

"DG Vaughn?" she squinted. Clara was Officer Gulch's young wife, a little older than DG. If she remembered correctly, she had been a cheerleader that had graduated two or three years ahead of her. She stepped forward and gave her a smile.

"Hey, Clara. Is the old man around? Have something I want to ask Uncle Benji."

She looked past DG's shoulder at Wyatt, conspicuous in his trademark leather duster and wide-brimmed hat. DG continued to smile, expectantly.

"Sure," she said, slowly, but when she noticed that DG didn't have 'HELP' written onto her eyelids, she opened the door wide enough for the couple to both enter.

"Oh, Clara, this is Wyatt. My boy-well, fiancé, now." The word felt strange on her tongue, and she was glad that the transition to 'husband' would, hopefully, be a quick one.

Wyatt jammed a hand out for Clara to shake, a smile on his face from when DG had introduced him. She excused herself and called down the basement stairs for Benjamin Gulch to come up.

Mona was going to be totally jealous; if Benji Gulch, her mother, or Emmett Cain were any signs of what O.Z. aging looked like, DG was going to do just fine. Joan Rivers, look out.

It took him no time at all to come down the stairs. He had keen eyes and an all knowing smile, as well as a penchant for sweater vests. Always well learnt and read, DG had remembered her first fancy dinner in this house, trying 'calla-marie' while someone sang very loud and in long notes on a record in the background in a language she didn't understand. Benjamin and Emmett must have been good friends, with all of their similarities.

"Is that my little DG I hear?" he said in a gruff voice, souvenir of years of smoking. DG remembered demanding, in a little-girl way, for him to quit, and he had. Now, she realized that it had been because he felt he had no choice.

He emerged from basement with ink on the heel of his hand. Writing again. DG now realized it was all reports back to the O.Z., for some unknown collection date in the future. Benjamin's eyes widened in surprise when he saw Wyatt standing there, as well. "And Wyatt Cain. I'll be damned if I didn't recognize you, even after all of these years. Come give your Uncle Benjamin a real 'hello'."

And just like that, Uncle Benji seemed totally accepting of his neighbor's son in Kansas, on the wrong side of the rainbow. Perhaps too many years of having to listen to their town's eccentric members in court had left their mark.

Wyatt was tugged into an awkward looking embrace, and then Ben pushed him back. "Let me look at ya." The man whistled. "My, you grew up big, boy. Is he not a fine looking man, Clara?" There was nothing but pride in his voice.

Clara gave him an embarrassed look. "Ben, you know I only have eyes for your son."

Ben turned to the couple, an ink-stained finger pointing over at Clara. "Loyal, that one. Now what brings two of my favorite people to my door step so late at night? Good thing you caught me now, I was just about to leave with a friend of mine for my cabin."

The infamous cabin. Photographs graced nearly every surface in the Gulch home. Snow came in thick, beautiful blankets there and trees allowed themselves to be covered in it properly. DG had always wished to go there.

DG tried to put what she was about to say into the correct words, but Wyatt gave her hand a squeeze and said it for her.

"The Queen signed a marriage contract, and now we're eloping." Talk about being blunt. It was sort of what they needed right then, anyway.

Clara was staring at the three of them oddly, but so was her husband, who had just arrived through the garage. Ben gave a long, tired sounding sigh and shook his head.

"Come on you kids, let's go talk this over in my study."

"Dad?" Officer Gulch asked, eyebrow raised. "What's going on?"

The older Gulch gave him a dismissive wave. "You thought they were all stories, anyway," he said before ushering the two strangers into the white walled, bookshelf covered room. Out of the corner of DG's eye, she saw him gape.

DG had only been in there once or twice in her entire life, usually told to behave nicely and play in the living room with her Hot Wheels.

The chairs were comfortable, and they appeared to be nicked from Town Hall. Wyatt made sure DG was seated before he took to one gracefully.

"I take it neither of you are here, at least with your parents knowing. Yes, you too, Wyatt. Emmett would string me up if he knew that you just came in here and said that to your Uncle Benjamin and I didn't try to say something about it."

He turned his attentions to the princess. "And you, young lady…Do your Kansas parents know you're here?"

She answered him, honestly. "No. I was afraid that the Queen might have programmed them to try to stop this sort of thing."

"All parents are, child," he said dryly, places his gold-framed glasses on and peering over them. "Now, let's start this from the beginning."

Mona would have been able to simply tell it as straight-forward as possible. It took the couple twenty minutes to jointly explain why they were sitting in his office, and the entire time their 'uncle' listened intently.

"So this isn't just a way of getting you out of the contract that you have not even actually read?" Uncle Benji sure had a way of making people see the mistakes in their actions. DG wondered if this was a natural occurrence or if he had just learned the skill after years of sitting through trials.

"I love Wyatt with my whole heart." It was funny hearing it said somewhere other than the privacy of closed doors or whispers; it felt right. The hand on hers tightened, and a thumb passed over the ring there. "I wouldn't marry anyone else."

The older man looked amused. "I wouldn't expect anything else, seeing as this was coming for a while, now." When he saw both of their confused faces, he elaborated. "Do you remember the one single Ken doll I ever gave you? Before I found out that all of the Barbies had suffered decapitation."

A flush of heat filled DG's cheeks and she bit her lip, nodding.

Ben leaned back in his chair and gave Cain an easy smile. "She named it 'Wyatt', and carried it everywhere. Very upset that in school she could not have him with her. Even got caught with it in her backpack, once."

"If you insist in embarrassing me, at least do it the normal way, like with a photo album or a video from a school play or something," groaned DG, wishing that the floor could open up right below her.

"That's sweet, DG," soothed Wyatt, but it was of little use. She knew she would never hear the end of it, once they were in private. The joke the other day had been made in complete ignorance of this fact.

Ben cleared his throat and leaned forward, hands folded. "But we have a larger problem on our hands. Rather, I have a dilemma: Do I refuse to marry you two based on the assumption that the Queen would be banning this if she knew, or do I listen to what could be considered a command from my Princess?"

It was Wyatt who said it softly, even though DG swore she had thought it. "Or, do you help 'your two favorite people' out, and be the Uncle Benjamin that we both love?"

The older man laughed, a crackling, dry sound, like the pages of his own old books. "Well said, my boy. Very well said."

They waited, hands clasped in between the chairs. Macho!Cain had exited the building somewhere along the way, and this sweeter one was exactly what DG needed. If Ben didn't agree then, well, DG could live five more years with Wyatt somewhere out of the way and quiet, but he would have to allow them to 'live in sin'. That was the only way she was walking away from this.

Ben pushed back his chair, sliding the certificates towards them. DG felt her heart sink a little.

But then a drawer was being pulled open, and a pen was being pressed into her hand, and Ben pointed at the local county certificate in front of her. "This is the one you'll have to fill out," he explained, gently.

In the end, the two certificates were stapled together, and that seemed like such a shame, because the O.Z. certificate was a piece of artwork in itself. Uncle Benji explained the process to them, and called out the now open door for the younger Gulch man to enter.

"Ezekiel," he started, and DG stopped herself from laughing. When he was younger, he'd been 'Zeke', but she guessed that she shouldn't say anything, because who knew if that had been a consideration before Jebidiah for the youngest Cain man. "Could you witness a marriage for me?"

Wyatt Cain married Deijhi Gale on the enclosed back porch of the Gulch household. The Kansas prairie was the backdrop, and the porch itself had a tree covered in white lights. The bride wore Converses.

The rings were the only thing DG could find from the extensive jewelry collection that she had been given access to that would be appropriate, and she had pocketed them before leaving. They were sturdy, thin, and handsome bands of platinum. Under the white lights, they sort of looked like tin.

Never, in all of her time knowing Wyatt Cain, had she ever seen him as remotely happy as he did on that cold porch, repeating the words that Benjamin Gulch said to him. But when it was her turn, and he got to the part about in sickness and in health, DG sort of added to it.

"In sickness and in health, and in inevitable mortal peril." This received looks from two young Gulchs standing on the porch, but a warm smile from the groom. So he had finally accepted that the 'always by your side' thing worked both ways.

And the kiss. Oh the kiss. It spoke of so many promises, of things that she hoped they would have the chance to see and do together. It promised forever, no matter how long that turned out to be. DG was hoping for the long-ish sort.

Visions flew by in that instant, half-remembered things until then of every moment they had shared, and she hadn't realized: the apple she had shyly given 'her Tin Man' when the Mystic Man had visited, early in his career, the Queen at Finaqua; the feel of her face against his leg, as she had clung to him during a fireworks display, and he had comforted her, had shown her how beautiful they were and had said, quietly, 'it's all for you, Princess'; her one day in elementary school that she ever got in trouble for something not involving a physical altercation, she had been sitting calmly in class, scribbling on the margin of a handout when a gripping fear and sense of panic took a hold of her, later she would find out that all they kept hearing from her lips were 'tin' and 'man' and perhaps the Vaughn family should stop letting her watch movies or read books so close to her bed time, and how her nightmares had been plagued that night by the vision of a man in an iron suit.

"Alright, you two, save the rest for when you're alone," said Ben Gulch with a laugh, and Cain reluctantly took the smallest of steps back. DG could only imagine what she looked like, lips swollen and eyes bright and wide.

That last part brought up a good point. Where the hell would they stay? It wasn't like they could go back to the farmhouse; her parents may have be set to kill, if they worked like that. If they stayed in town, it was only a small matter of time before her mother sent Tin Men after them, or maybe some of the Resistance. And it would probably be Jeb, or something. And she would die of shame, and a virgin.

But then there was something in a long, smooth folder being pushed into her hand, and when she looked down, confused, Ben was shaking his head. "I can't do much, other than try to hold them off, if they come. But I won't lie; that's not me. There's no way they'll be able to stop you if you're on that plane."

"I-I don't know what to say, Uncle Benji," managed DG, and Wyatt grasped the judge's hands.

"Thank you," he said, and meant it.

There was only a slight bit of hold up at the airport, but DG stared intently at the clerk and suddenly they were accepting the tickets, as well as their photo driver's linceses, although it was merely a phone card that she had passed when asked for Wyatt's.

"It's like the Force," she said to herself. "Or maybe psychic paper."

Explaining to Wyatt the mechanics of an airplane was strange and funny, and he may not have said he was nervous, but he held her hand tightly throughout the takeoff.

It was a quiet, sleepy group on the plane, and the weary looking couple, in their clothing that was just slightly off, were not noticed. Most of the passengers were sleeping, anyway, save for the trio of young women in the seats across from them, who all had an strange looking hats and were very much engrossed in something on the middle one's laptop. Occasionally they would giggle and mutter something about tight pants. One had a strange knit hat that DG remembered from somewhere.

But then Wyatt was taking her hand, and placing a warm, lingering kiss on their joined hands, and she couldn't help but smile when he leaned over.

"I love you, Mrs. Cain."


	18. Chapter 18

**Characters: Cain, DG, Lavender Eyes, the Robo 'Rents**

**Pairing: Cain/DG**

**Rating: This chapter? R**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 2,572**

_AN: OMG so much love for transgenic girl at LJ, who secured me my very own hypothermia!Cain! Don't believe me? Go check out tinmanclaims. He's mine, for that nonexistent point that you know happened in the show. Oh, and we both own the right to call Wyatt Cain "Captain Tightpants". Hee...One more chapter after this, folks..._

_FFN AN: A chapter that I thought was just a little too NSFW for is posted in my LJ Swirlsscribbles as 'Chapter Nineteen', and can be read there. It's linked through my profile, dears_. And reviews are always appreciated!

* * *

It's a breathless, occupied two days of time that they spent in the cabin, and in the end DG would never be able to look at a kitchen or bathroom, among other things, the same way again.

Everyone, DG decided as she watched content at one point, should have a Tin Man of their own prepare breakfast for you in the nude. And then clean you down in a less than orthodox way when you get syrup all over yourself. By accident, of course.

"You trying to kill me?" Wyatt seemed to frequently say, as DG made her intentions known, but within only minutes it would be quite clear that he was nowhere near dying.

They both did, however, have significant bruising, and she wasn't quite sure how even all the cover up of either Side would conceal the marks peppering her neck. And her shoulders. And, well, just about everywhere. Not that Wyatt Cain looked entirely untouched, either. He grimaced when they later sat on the plane, and that fact had a lot to do with the large bruise he had on his backside from their slip in the shower, which, at the time barely seemed to phase the couple who continued, energetically, with their activities.

The stars were bright, and on the second night they sat on the porch with blankets and haphazardly chosen clothing to watch them. Cain's flannel shirt did not cover her shoulders, which now were marked because of it.

"I never want to go back," she whispered into his shoulder later on. "But I know that we have to; my sister needs me. And they would eventually find us here."

He had sighed into her hair, and said that she was right.

"Plus," he added, and she started to grin in anticipation of whatever he was about to say, because she could tell he was smirking. "I sort of miss standing up and walking three feet without finding myself being attacked by my wife."

Even if Cain said that she'd never get better at, well-it couldn't be considered a nightly activity, more like a constant one-what they had been very busy with, she was learning. One time she had even pushed him over, and seeing Wyatt below her like that was an image she wanted forever.

But finally DG knew it was time to return, so they tried to fix up things before bundling up and leaving, and took the plane ride home. Whatever those three girls had flown in for must have been exciting and ending at the same time as their trip, because she noticed them a few rows back, looking tired and shocked. One seemed to have a smear of blue lipstick.

But then Wyatt decided, halfway through the trip to sneak his hand under the blanket she had on her lap, and when the stewardess asked if she wanted a drink, her responsive "God, yes!" was a little too enthusiastic, and she buried her head into Wyatt's shoulder, who was silently shaking with laughter.

They took the bus back to her town from the Kansas airport, and as they walked the short distance back to Ben Gulch's home, she couldn't help but smile a little. Wyatt's fine wonderful as was _her_wonderful ass, and the girl who was a year or two younger than her who ran the 5 and 10 got a weighty glare from DG when she caught her looking at it. Wyatt colored when she put her hand in his back pocket.

Ben was waiting for them, sitting on a rocking chair on his front porch, watching for them. He raised his coffee mug in a form of salute when he saw them approach.

"Back so soon? DG let you out of bed, Wyatt?"

It was DG's turn to blush.

They left his house after an hour of thank yous and goodbyes, and Elmer Gulch even gave DG a small hug, and instructed her not to get into too much trouble.

"Your Highness," he added, quickly, upon seeing Wyatt's dark look.

And then, holding hands, they started to run towards the cyclone, never letting go as their grip on the ground was ripped away, and they made their way home.

It was night in Central City when they arrived, and they both held their breath as they slipped in through the large gates, and Wyatt muttered something about changing the guards the second he could.

They made it to the entrance to the palace, through the stable, and into what was quickly becoming her favorite stairwell. It smelled musty and then she didn't know because every last bit of her was being covered by her husband.

"What?" she asked, breathless, hand wrapping around his arm, where it was placed next to her head. "What's wrong?"

"This may be our last few moments-"

"Alone?" she finished, giving him a knowing look, and a smile. It even felt new and foreign to her, and Wyatt had called it her "woman's smile", the one she got as she curled up with him, breathless. Her slim fingers sought and found the edge of his jeans, bringing him closer.

"Then let's make them count," she whispered, lips brushing against his, surprise at her own boldness making her pulse quicken, and Wyatt gave in.

They straightened themselves out and DG hoped that they didn't pass by Raw, because she could only imagine he'd go crying. Being in the palace made her think of all the places she wanted to pull Wyatt into, out of the way, and ravage.

They only let go of each other's hands when they reached the populated parts of the castle, and DG looked around nervously. Did she have a giant sign over her head, declaring the now nonexistent state of her virginity?

Apparently there wasn't. And no one seemed all that surprised to see her around. It was only Mona who reacted the way she expected.

"Oh my God, if you don't start talking right _now_," threatened her friend, who was twisted around on her sofa. Azkadellia was sitting next to her, calmly doing a cross-stitch. Mona ran around the couch and grabbed up her hand, examining the rings.

"So you're-"

"Yeah," said DG, excitedly, and then Azkadellia was joining them as well, and the girls were all hugs and happy tears.

"So did you?" Mona asked, and Az cocked her head to the side.

DG walked past them to take off her jacket, finding a large amount of paint chips on it's back, near where her shoulder blades would have been. "I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," she said, airily, but both girls gave her shrewd looks. "Well what did you expect? It doesn't take that long to get married."

"I bet it was romantic." Mona asked, kneeling on the couch and resting her arms and head on the back of it. Az smirked.

"The House of Gale is known for producing some of the strongest and seductive women in all of the O.Z.; our stamina is legendary."

The two younger women looked at her, shocked.

"Well, that's something very nice to know and remember for dinner conversation with our parents present, 'Dellia-dear." DG wasn't quite sure what else to say. "Maybe a few dignitaries. A pope or two."

Mona looked put out as DG slipped into her walk-in closet, threw on a simple dress, and put on soft slippers that matched. The younger girl leaned against the door. "You really aren't going to tell me, are you?"

DG shook her head as she reentered her room, looking for her comb. "Nope. Because you will go, armed with that information and presuming that it's hereditary, to a room down the hall and try to have your way with Jeb…who is-_Great Gale_-my husband's son. That's not very nice of me, is it?"

"You have all of the fun," her friend replied, petulantly. DG patted her on the head.

"I'm off to go hunt down new places to have that sort of fun."

"Shouldn't you give it a rest, little sister?" Az looked up from her stitching. "I'd say you should give the poor man's back a break. It's only been a short while, I'm sure."

DG took a peak at a large mirror over her vanity, finding her cheeks were still pink. _That_pink. That I-Just-Shagged-My-Husband-Against-a-Wall!Pink. It would make a pretty nail polish color, but it did not belong on her cheeks.

With a groan she headed into her bathroom and splashed cold water on her face before heading back out.

It was halfway between the library and a stairwell that her mother found her.

"Feeling better, darling?" her mother asked, and DG froze, mid step. Say what? "Your sister told me you had not been feeling well, but that you refused to see a Healer. Is everything alright?"

DG stared at the Queen, blankly. "Of course," she said, finally. "Much better. Like a new woman."

Her mother looked relieved. "That's excellent to hear, my angel." Her mother had somehow mastered the art of making it look perfectly natural to have small talk with your child whilst being surrounded by Council Members and Advisors.

"So I will see you at dinner, then?"

"Of course." She was starting to sound like Glitch. But at the moment she was still trying to process this fascinating course of events.

Wyatt was in his office, sorting through papers that had been left. While she, apparently, was able to not be seen for three days and not suffer any consequences, the Captain of the Royal Guard had a large pile of paperwork waiting for him. He looked up as she entered.

"They thought I was sick," she said, blankly. He seemed as surprised as her.

"I still have my job, so I figured that something like that might have happened. Sorry that I didn't get to whisk you away after your mother stormed in and demanded an explanation."

DG perched herself unceremoniously on the edge of his desk. "It still might happen."

He looked over at the door, but with a wave DG shut it, and made sure that anyone walking by with the even half a desire to eavesdrop would suddenly want to go to the kitchens three floors below.

"We're going to have to tell your family. Jeb, no doubt, will be a little sore about not getting to come along for the wedding, but he'll understand. Your parents, however, are a whole entirely different story."

DG picked up a paperweight from his desk, recognizing it as one of those peculiar rocks only found at the Cain Ranch. "I wish we could just skip that whole part of this."

"I'd rather not see the Avoidance Dance, Deijhi."

She rolled her eyes. "You love it and you know it."

The princess found herself on her Tin Man's lap. "I love you," Wyatt said, firmly, before kissing her in a way that made DG's toes curl and her arms wind themselves around the back of his neck. But he broke the kiss and patted her leg. "But I at least owe it to your parents to finish this paperwork before they fire me and replace me."

"So I'll see you at dinner?" she asked, before she realized what that meant. Sitting with her parents as he stood nearby, being all bodyguardish. He nodded, and then swatted her backside as she stood.

"I'm sure we'll figure out _something_to do to occupy ourselves later, Mrs. Cain."

She looked at him coyly of her shoulder. "I don't know _what_you're talking about, Mr. Cain."

Dinner was, of course, awkward. Mona was eating with them, but it only made matters worse. Her mother seemed to be very concerned over her health, as was her father, and Azkadellia and Mona seemed to be on the brink of snorting their soup at any second. And if DG looked up from her food, she'd meet Wyatt's gaze, where he leaned against the wall, and then her mother would ask if she was feeling feverish again, because she looked a bit flushed.

Well, when the guy giving you _that_look has caused you to sing in a higher octave than you ever thought possible only twenty four hours ago, and you can't stop trying to figure out if doing it while riding on a horse is possible, and then the idea of it all causes you to wonder when you got so incredibly horny, what would you be doing? Knitting?

Finally, as the dishes were cleared, the Queen settled back slightly in her chair and cleared her throat.

"Deijhi, my darling, I need to discuss with you the marriage contract."

DG wondered where her mother's tact had disappeared to, but it probably went to the same place the bottom of her stomach had gone to, because it seemed to have dropped and never come back.

"That's funny you should say that, Mom-Mother, because I have got to talk to you about that."

The lavender-eyed Queen gave her husband a cryptic smile. "And what exactly do you need to say, my sweet?"

"I can't marry anyone else because, well, I already know who my Intended is, and I love him." DG took a deep breath and continued on with the Big News, and it was only half way through her next sentence that she realized the Queen had been talking at the same time as her.

"Well I am very relieved to see that this doesn't have to go on any long-You did_what_?"

Ahamo was coughing, sputtering on a bite of something green and that DG was finding to taste of chocolate. Wyatt took a quick step forward and gave him a forceful pat on the back. Well, saving the Queen's Consort's life was a great way to score brownie points right before the Queen's question.

"I married my Intended. Who happens to be Wyatt Cain. By the way this is a very good cake. Really moist."

But her of her parents were not listening, and had turned to both face Wyatt, who had stopped retreating towards his usual post near the wall, and they had matching looks of shock on their faces.

"I love her," DG's husband said simply, and the princess slipped around to take his hand. "Punish me, if you want, but nothing will ever change that."

And then the Queen fainted, and several attendants rushed forward, and Ahamo was torn between saying something-or rather, yelling-directed towards the newly married couple, or making sure his wife was alright. The latter choice won.

The once quiet room was now filled with commotion, and Mona turned towards the older of the O.Z. Princesses.

"Is this usually how your meals go?"


	19. Chapter 19

**Rating: This chapter? R**

**Summary: When DG returns to Reality for her friend's wedding, the new Head of the Royal Family's guard is the perfect choice to accompany her. Multichap fic.**

**Warning: I guess you shouldn't read if you haven't seen all three parts.**

**Disclaimer: It's routine by now, right? La la, was L. Frank Baum's, da di da, Sci Fi's adaption. Do be doo don't own, just play with. New characters are mine.**

**Word Count: 1,307**

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"They thought that they could have the marriage annulled," DG said hours later, in the darkness of Wyatt's-oh, for all intended purposes, their-room. Light from the window overhead was spilling in and bleaching the sheets and the blonde man's chest and shoulders, where he hovered above his wife. For a moment he stilled in his working at her shirt, and his lips were set in a firm line as he continued. DG sighed and sat up. What was the use of having a hot, sexy, ICan'tBelieveWeHaven'tBrokentheBedYet!Cain in bed if he was going to be like that. Sure, he wouldn't be making that face in a matter of minutes, but still.

She sat up. "And I told them that even if that whole consummation thing hadn't happened-"

"-Several times-"

"Oh I remember it! So even if that hadn't happened, I'd still not annul the marriage, even if they were accepting of us and planning a more acceptable marriage for a few months from now." DG leaned forward and kissed his jaw, snaking her arms around him. "Love you too much."

That made him smile, and then he set back to work. It was a long time before they both fell back onto the pillows, warm and breathless and spent, and then they talked again.

Wyatt groaned, the sort that would usually followed by him complaining that he was getting old, and then DG would cheekily tell him that old men could not do that, like he could, several times in a row. And it would usually end with them demonstrating for mutual benefit that she was correct.

This time, however, he said something different. "I can see tomorrow is going to be a couple cups of coffee sort of day."

DG snuggled closer to his chest, the few wiry golden hairs there pressed against her cheek. "Just take a half day," she said, with a yawn. "Spend the rest it with me. I think my mother said something about planning the ceremony as quickly as possible, and you know protection will be needed."

The chest below her rumbled with laughter. "And who will need it: you or her?" He sighed. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. They are doing a follow up on Zero's interrogation, and they need my input."

She sat up. "You were there? Today?"

"No," he pinched at the bridge of his nose. "But I'm mighty glad I wasn't; I just received the visual feed for review after dinner."

The silence was not a good one. "What's wrong, honey?" It was the first time she had used the pet name, but it came out without much thought, and she rubbed at his chest.

"You're sister was possessed," her husband whispered. "He's just-he's evil. I have never seen a man so consumed by a desire for power, for control. Zero said he doesn't care what happens to him; all that matters to him is that he thinks it's going to be his child that will receive the throne."

"It's Glitch's," she corrected. "Ambrose is all but ready to ask my parents for her hand."

"How is Azkadellia doing?"

"She's coping. It's going to be a long time, and I think Ambrose...Glitch...he's being a great help right now. Az has him for support. And her family. We're just going to listen and do what we can to be supportive."

"Then I think this is going to end up as a three-for-one," sighed Wyatt, fingers threading through her hair. He cupped the back of her head as she sat back up, again, giving him a look of question. Honestly, she was going to forbid any discussion in bed that did not involve saying one another's names or a deity's frequently and loudly, or instructions that included the words 'harder' or 'faster'.

"Out with it, Mister, or I won't be getting that book I told you about next time we go take a Storm."

"The 'Suit Rah' book?" he said, suddenly disappointed, but then he continued. "Jeb wants to have talk with me sometime this week. He looked like I felt right before I asked you to marry me."

"I'm to young to be a mother-in-law! Especially to my best friend, and-oh, what the hell am I saying? This is wonderful!"

He groaned. Again. Not the good kind. "Deijhi, darlin', this means we are eventually going to end up grandparents."

"Yeah, but I bet you're the type of guy who stays sexy while you age."

A firm hand came down strongly over her rear, and she gave a small shriek at the slight sting. "And with the rate all of this is going, you're going to have the perkiest ass a grandmother this side of the rainbow has ever had."

DG tackled him with a giggle. "Oh my God," she said suddenly. "You made a funny. I think I broke you!"

But after a short while they quieted, and DG took her place by his side, and they both stared up at the ceiling. In the morning, they would wake up together, in each other's arms, and life would go on, shaky but finding its feet, and they would have one another.

"Wyatt." Her voice didn't break the quiet, it just seemed to fit in. The arm around her waist tightened for an instant.

"Yes, darlin'?"

"I know it can't always be like this, but...let's try to keep it this way for as long as possible, okay?"

In the dark, she knew he smiled. "Anything for you, love."

DG smiled.

"Shiny."

The announcement of the three marriages set all of the O.Z. in a tizzy, and as the kingdom set itself back together, it looked forward to the celebration as a sort of way to finalize their survival and victory.

The two princesses and the lady in waiting were said to be beautiful in their own ways: Deijhi seemed to only have eyes for her handsome groom, and Azkadellia had the glow of an expectant mother, and the Lady Mona was exotic and gorgeous. They were all so very close that it made it easy to track down one or the other for something during the planning.

The Heir to the Throne, Princess Deijhi Cain and her groom retired to the palace at the Ice Mountain for an extended honeymoon, during which no one saw them. Mona and her dear Jeb traveled the land, and Az and Glitch remained at the palace in Central City, as she was due soon.

The baby was a girl, and they named her Mina, something short and sweet and close to the name of the mother's dear friend. Both of her parents weren't entirely fond of their own names, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

DG's prescription of the Pill ran out about three months after her wedding. They announced her pregnancy a month later.

Zero withered, but did not die. It is said that when he was told that DG and her lovely Consort were to ascend the throne, whatever had kept him centered in his sick way broke, and he never spoke again.

But the DG and Wyatt still found time to sneak out to the Cain Estate, to the quiet and peace found in that beautiful area.

Carly and Sarah received identical, peculiar envelopes one day. Inside it were pictures of DG and Mona, as well as DG's boyfriend and a younger man that looked a great deal like him. Next to them was a woman who resembled DG, and a pale, dark haired man next to him. There were three babies in the picture, and everyone's smiles looked as if they would always remain, and not just in the photo. There were only a few words on the backs.

_We got our H.E.A.s, and we hope you get yours. _

_Love, your friends_

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_AN: That's it. The end. Expect a new fic to be posted _very_ shortly. Reviews, as always, are loved. _


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